Employers are demanding a one-stop shop service for issuing building permits, in order to avoid the ordeal of visiting 18 state institutions, and also the streamlining of tax collection.
Guatemala ranks 106 in the world in terms of ease of obtaining building permits, according to the World Bank. Data from the Guatemalan Chamber of Construction (CGC) reveals that the current backlog of projects awaiting approval amounts to about 2.6 million square meters of construction work, processes which represents for the State lost revenue of up to Q2.145.000 ($277 million) through IVA , ISR, USI, payments to municipalities and for licenses.
One million square meters are awaiting construction permits in a country where 13 institutions have to be visited in order to collect a license.
For the Municipality of Guatemala to give out a building permit, the applicant must obtain approval from the Ministries of Environment, Culture and Sports, the General Property Registry, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the National Forestry Institute, the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction, the Office for Territorial Control and the district capital departments of Works, Historic Center, Environment and Land and from the Empagua.
The private sector claims that excessive paperwork and the lack of technical personnel in the Ministry of Environment is delaying the assessment of environmental impact studies and the granting of building permits.
According to the Guatemalan Chamber of Construction, the slowness with which the studies are evaluated and permits granted to construction companies is preventing projects being carried out in the medium-term and moving towards recovery of the sector.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Guatemala is one of the institutions that is holding up construction projects by issuing licenses up to two years late.
At the moment the process of obtaining a license takes from 6 months to 2 years, depending on the size of the project. This has been the subject of discussions aimed at achieving reform in order to counter this problem.
The shysters who live off government paperwork have reacted with alarm to the agility of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources regarding permits for Minimum Environmental Impact Activities.
Editorial
An article on Plazapública.com.gt reports that until very recently, "... there were only three ways of classifying Environmental Instruments.
The Ministry of Environment of Guatemala has presented a new system to reduce the average time of processing from three months to one day.
The FastTrack Counter at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), functions as an expedited service, efficiently and effectively, to develop initial environmental assessments where environmental impact is minimal, with a maximum response time of 24 hours.