National cadaster program

Final PES covers the period 1/75-9/80 and is based on document review and interviews with project personnel. Although all of the required cadastral data were successfully collected and analyzed, none of the three project purposes were achieved. In the first component, 71,277 rural and 31,531 urban properties (both above taraget) were delineated, permanent registry buildings were built, and the property records system was updated, but the GOH Supreme Court never implemented legislation - a condition precedent to the project - establishing a reorganized property registry system aimed at furthering agrarian reform by establishing clear titles to land. Consequently, the system remains as before; no titles have been issued under the new system. In the second component, the PCN valued all delineated properties/improvements, produced a valuation manual, and prepared a plan for municipal property tax billing. Again, however, legislation - also a condition precedent - establishing a national property tax billing system was not implemented, this time by the Ministry of Finance, which is uninterested in municipal tax collection. Consequently, no municipal tax reform was undertaken and municipalities have been unable to collect additional taxes. In the third component, the PCN, focusing on agricultural and cattle-grazing lands, inventoried soils, water resources, vegetation, agricultural economy, and land use and produced resource maps covering 30,000 square km. Due to lack of coordination between the PCN and the Ministry of Natural Resources, however, there was no significant analysis of the data by the Agricultural Sector Planning Office. The project taught that cadaster programs cannot succeed if the political will to implement the needed reforms is lacking. In an effort to ensure that the project"s achievements are used for the purposes intended, USAID/H plans to use PCN data and experience in several projects, including Agricultural Sector II, Small Farmer Titling and Services, and Municipal Development II.