In the first half of this year, there was a significant year-on-year increase in the amount of documents prepared in the Register of Residential Building Managers and in the use of related online services.
This is due to the legal requirements for the managers of residential buildings to begin keeping their building files in digital form in the Building Information System (BIS) starting on 1 March this year.
We are a step away from building owners having the information they need to properly maintain their property so that it does not pose a risk to other members of the public. Of course, these changes are slow and will take time," said Svetlana Mjakuškina, head of the Construction State Control Bureau (SCCB) which developed BIS.
The number of registered building managers increased from 853 at the end of last year to 1139 at the end of June this year. A total of 944 administrative documents were issued, 833 more than a year ago, pertaining to the registration of building managers, registration rejections, updates of records in the Register of Building Managers. This serves as evidence of the interest of building managers to use the building file management features integrated in BIS. 394 building managers have access to the files of 11,353 apartment buildings, beginning to collect the information required by law in these files. The use of online services also increased: the most used BIS online service this year was the submission of applications for registration and for updating records in the Register of Residential Building Managers.
Building information system
Other BIS improvements were also implemented in the first half of the year. A new design was developed for the website and work began on updating the BIS Mobile app. Since the online working environment of the construction authorities and the bodies supervising them was developed 10 years ago, its technological infrastructure and design are outdated, and a new technological solution is currently in development to facilitate the work of supervisory bodies, to speed up the review of documents submitted by BIS users, and to expedite the adoption of decisions. In order to make the work of construction parties easier, new BIS data exchange interfaces with the information systems of construction designers, contractors, and initiators are to be implemented this year.
SCCB continuously maintains 11 registers. The biggest ones in the construction sector are the Register of Building Merchants, which contains data about 6350 building merchants, and the Register of Construction Specialists, which contains information about 6094 construction specialists. Information about 148 main construction contractors, 1132 subcontractor contracts, 290 construction sites, and 20,509 workers at construction sites was registered in the single electronic working time database (VEDLUDB).
Amendments to the Construction Law were adopted on 15 May 2023, requiring that register documentation and data may only be shared via BIS. Work is thus being done to improve the availability of online services for all registers.
Construction control
In the first half of 2023, the total number of sites under the construction control of SCCB was 328. As part of it, SCCB issued 396 structure inspection reports, and no violations were found in 234 cases. In 108 cases, there were violations. In 15 cases, construction was suspended on all of the site or a part of it. The most common reasons for suspension included: construction not complying with the construction design, requiring the work to be stopped, design changes to be made and a new expert review to be carried out; use of construction products with deficient quality documentation; construction participants refusing to perform their duties.
10 ‘Consult First’ webinars were organised as part of construction control, which 402 people took part in. In exercising its functions as a construction authority, SCCB adopted 168 decisions, 73 of which pertained to the construction of buildings for the needs of the Ministry of Defence, institutions subordinate to it, and the National Armed Forces.
Supervision of operation
179 physical inspections were carried out as part of the supervision of the operation of public buildings. 17 (9%) of the buildings that underwent first inspections were in hazardous (failure or pre-failure) state, and their operation was prohibited until the elimination of the hazard. 21 (10%) of the buildings inspected were in excellent or good condition, while 141 (81%) were in need of safety improvements. The most common problems were the absence of handrails and handrail guards, unmarked height differences and glazed surfaces, facade finish elements threatening to fall off, and unsafe electrical wiring. The poor performance indicators are due to the fact that SCCB uses a risk identification algorithm in its operational supervision activities, which makes the Bureau to prioritise the inspection of buildings with higher hazard levels.
151 decisions on preventing hazardous and unauthorised construction were prepared as part of administrative inspections, and 251 inspections to follow up on the compliance with administrative documents were carried out. In 86 cases, building owners were found to have complied with the requirements to improve the safety of their buildings.
Certification of construction specialists
As part of certifying construction specialists and supervising independent practice in the specialisation of the expert review of buildings, a new examination procedure was created, with the content of the examination papers expanded to include an in-depth analysis of a practical situation. In order to improve the quality of its building expert reviews, SCCB began working on digitising the building expert review procedure.
In the first half of the year, the Bureau handled complaints of alleged professional misconduct by 3 experts. In one case, it decided to close the case without finding any violations; in another case, minor violations were found, and in the third case, serious violations were found. The complaint assessment procedure in cases concerning the alleged professional misconduct of 7 experts is still ongoing.
A survey of certified construction specialists was conducted to assess the quality of the services provided by the SCCB Construction Specialist Certification Division (CSCD). Last year, CSCD’s average service quality score was 4.17 out of 5, rising to 4.33 in 2023.
About the Bureau
SCCB is a national administrative institution under the supervision of the Ministry of Economics, which began its activities on 1 October 2014. The Ministry of Climate and Energy was established in 2023, and the energy sector management function of the Bureau is performed under its supervision. The purposes of the Bureau are to ensure quality and safety in the construction sector and to manage energy sector policy within the scope of its authority established by laws and regulations.
SCCB is a member of the Consortium of European Building Control and uses its international experience in performing the Bureau’s core functions. This year, the Bureau has submitted an application for the Interreg Central Baltic project, which aims to use satellite data for monitoring construction and the maintenance of buildings. A positive decision has been received for Round 1, and a project application for Round 2 is being prepared. The Bureau is part of the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme ‘Public Administration’, intended to promote the sharing of good practice and knowledge, to harmonise the working standards, and to improve the competitiveness of the Baltic Sea Region.
In March, SCCB received an award as the top of Latvian institutions of 115 in the Efficiency of Internal Processes category of MEPRD’s E-Index initiative. The Bureau took 3rd place in the Customer Service and Support and Open Data Accessibility categories. In June, SCCB won bronze in the assessment of government institutions as part of Sustainability Index 2023.
