The National Land Service submitted its 2021 activity report to the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Assessing our performance, we see that we are making the right decisions by constantly implementing and using a variety of modern productivity and efficiency tools that are useful and convenient in our daily work and for all our citizens. The transfer of various services to the electronic space, wider and more convenient access to services, involvement of citizens in their activities greatly contribute to the transparent and high-quality implementation of the strategic goals of the NLS is to ensure the rational use of land. The efficiency of our operations is also reflected in the ever-increasing financial return. Last year, the state and municipal budgets were supplemented by as many as 58.1 million EUR, i.e., 44 percent more than 2020. I am glad that the quality of our activities is also positively assessed by international experts,” says Saulius Mocevičius, who is currently the director of the NLS.

50 administrative services are provided

Natural and legal persons have made intensive use of the possibility to submit applications securely, quickly and easily using electronic services: “E. citizen” and the portals of the Electronic Government Gateway (www.epaslaugos.lt).

Through “E. citizen” 365 applications were submitted to the NLS, and 16,202 applications were submitted through the Electronic Government Gateway (www.epaslaugos.lt).

The number of documents submitted to the NLS was more than twice as high as in 2020 the number of documents submitted through the Electronic Government Gateway in 2021. 

Since 2021 July 1, citizens have had the opportunity to submit applications for the following consents electronically: to construct and use temporary simple structures in surface water bodies of national significance; to build structures on land plots bordering on state land plots or state land where land plots have not been formed; to build temporary and uncomplicated structures on state land where land plots have not been formed; temporary use of public land during construction.

An electronic service has also been launched, which will be used to issue permits for the acquisition of agricultural and forestry land electronically.

People are urged not to tolerate possible land use violations

In the course of state control over land use, the NLS carried out 10,290 inspections, of which as many as 2,990 inspections were carried out on the basis of reports or complaints received from individuals.

During the state control over land use, 4760 violations of the land use procedure were identified. This accounted for 46 percent of all inspections carried out (17 percent more than were detected in 2020, i.e., violations of land use procedures detected in 2020 accounted for 29 percent of all inspections carried out for which the ANC is responsible).

Fines of € 115,130 were imposed for land use violations.

In 2021, aiming to increase people's interest and activity in participating in land use control activities a program for the state control of land use and a website developed by means of geographic information systems (GIS). With this state-of-the-art tool, people can report detected land use violations to the NLS more quickly, conveniently, and without revealing their identities, and by tracking the location of the violation on an interactive map, they can monitor the entire process of reviewing and verifying their report to know whether the notification has been confirmed and by when the infringement must be remedied.

In 2021, the effectiveness of scheduled land use inspections has also improved significantly: 2841 inspections revealed 2841 infringements, representing 46 percent of the total of all planned inspections performed (in 2020, out of 8292 planned inspections, 2172 violations were detected, which is 26 percent of all performed planned inspections).

The higher number of detected irregularities was due to careful and objective planning of inspections. Various modern information technologies, digital maps, images captured by satellites, spatial data of the map of abandoned lands of the Lithuanian Spatial Information Portal (www.geoportal.lt), etc. are used to plan inspections.

The use of various modern tools in land use control yields tangible practical and preventive results: transparency and impartiality in the selection of routine inspections is ensured, controls become more effective, more irregularities are detected, brownfields are consistently reduced, and irregularities are not reported.

Citizens have easy and quick access to information about state-owned land

The state land accounting spatial and statistical data of the territory of Lithuania on state land in a specific territory are updated and published on the Lithuanian Spatial Information Portal - which land uses (agricultural land, forest, water bodies, roads, etc.) form the respective area of state land, for which time and on what basis (rent, loan, etc.) the right to use it has been granted. Stakeholders can use this dataset to assess the possibility of renting or acquiring public land in a selected area.

Conditions are being improved to ensure efficient land use

The NLS accelerates the preparation of land reform land management projects, in which land plots are designed for rent and / or sale by auction. As a result, the number of unregistered state-owned land is declining due to the efforts of the NLS.

In 2021, 30,066.55 hectares of land (8,850 plots) were registered under state ownership.

The reduction of unregistered areas creates conditions for more efficient use of the state land fund - according to the needs of the state, the land can be leased, transferred for the right of use or sold.

In 2021, 12,587 land lease and 6,832 land purchase and sale agreements were concluded, which bring revenue to the state budget.

All land needs of the municipalities have been met

Out of 60 Lithuanian municipalities, 12 municipalities expressed the need to manage, use and dispose of state land plots.

101 state land plots (total area almost 125 hectares) were transferred to these municipalities by the orders of the director of NLS.

All land plots were transferred to the municipalities in the shortest possible time, so that the municipalities could quickly implement the planned investment, infrastructure development, recreation and recreation projects.

Professional assistance in the implementation of projects of special state importance

In 2021, during the state implementation of the project of special state importance (reconstruction of the section of the main road A5 Kaunas – Marijampolė – Suwalki), the director of NLS adopted 817 acts on land acquisition for the needs of the society in the territories of Marijampolė and Kalvarija municipalities.

Also, in 2021 40 orders were taken to take land for public use in other areas.

A total of 713 private and state land plots with an area of 568.4 hectares and 29.1 hectares of free state land were acquired.

Updated state spatial data sets

The adjustment of the parameters of the geodetic base and the updating of the state data sets and maps were carried out in accordance with the State Geodetic Base Management and Land Mapping Program for 2021–2023 – a total of 9 state spatial data sets and maps were updated. Updated datasets and maps are provided to users.

The use of state spatial data sets and services is very active, as spatial planning documents are prepared and designed using the latest spatial data, and state spatial data sets and related services are used to create state cadastres and registers.

Automated verification of land cadastre data

In 2021, 11,700 land parcel cadastral data correctness checks were performed in the area.

In order to achieve more efficient inspection of land cadastral data files, the improvement of the functionality of inspection of land cadastral data files was started - in cooperation with the state enterprise Center of Registers, testing in the environment of RER subsystem “GeoMatininkas” was started the process of automating the filling in of the indications of violations of the legal acts specified in the acts of the marking inspection area.

Preparation of land management planning documents - almost 100 percent in the electronic space

In 2021, 13,578 services were ordered through the Land Management Planning Document Preparation Information System (ZPRIS), of which: 12,264 land plot formation and conversion project preparation services, 1,310 rural development land management project preparation services and 4 land acquisition project preparation services.

97.7 percent ofland management planning documents were submitted for verification in the ZPDRIS system, and only 2.3 per cent. in printed form.

The issued consents / permits for the use of state land are being digitized

In order to increase the availability of information and data available, the NLS digitized 2427 consents (the total amount of which was 7 015 pages of plans / schemes), issued for the construction of communications, engineering networks and the construction of structures necessary for their operation on state land where no land plots have been formed in 2021.

Using the functionality of the Lithuanian Spatial Information Portal, the spatial data of the state land plots (areas) of the territory of the Republic of Lithuania were constantly updated, 2,964 plots were drawn in which permits for temporary use of land for agricultural activities were granted.

To ensure transparency and efficiency - Anti-corruption and Quality management systems

The analysis of the activities of the NLS (determination of the context) has been performed, the areas of activity and processes (sub-processes) in which the risk of corruption may be higher than low have been identified, and the identified risks of corruption have been assessed. A plan of corruption risk management measures has been prepared to manage the identified unacceptable risks of corruption.

Much attention has also been paid to raising the anti-corruption awareness and intolerance of employees and to implementing other measures to prevent corruption. Anti-corruption training was organized on the topics “Increasing the professional knowledge of employees in the field of ethics and prevention of corruption”, “Prevention of corruption in the National Land Service: measures and their implementation”. Together with the Special Investigation Service of the Republic of Lithuania, a seminar “Corruption Risks in the Supervision of Economic Entities” was organized.

2021 November Experts from the international certification services company Bureau Veritas Lit performed an audit of the quality management system of the NLS and extended the validity of the certificate ISO 9001: 2015 / LST EN ISO 9001: 2015.

This confirms that the quality management system of the NLS helps to consistently achieve the strategic goals of the organization, to control the operational processes more effectively, and quality management helps to improve the quality of services provided, improve applied operating methods, improve performance and improve administrative efficiency.

According to international experts, the strongest aspects of the NLS quality management system are the management's approach and commitment to quality, effective management improvement, improving quality indicators, employee involvement, responsibility planning, business planning and communication culture, identification of applicable regulatory requirements and their implementation planning.