A sixteen-storey building collapsed in one of the central streets of Baku on 28 August and as a result, twenty-five people died. The experts state that the building collapsed as a result of using low quality construction materials and breaking technical safety regulations. After this incident, the President of Azerbaijan issued an order on 30 August which strengthened regulations for State control on the construction sector.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan approved the regulations for activity of the State Agency for Control on Security of Construction Work under the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The State agency was then empowered to prevent all illegal construction activity. According to the regulations, construction activity is prevented due to the absence of construction licenses or the use of construction materials not meeting standards.
Control on construction activity has been taken over by the Head State Construction Inspection of the State Agency. While discovering any violations, the inspectors devise and register documents during the inspection.
The violator should inform the inspectors of the measures taken to eliminate the violations. The measures are taken at the expense of the culprit. The Chief of Inspectors established a commission to aid in inspecting construction sites.
Thus, the rules for the State Agency for control over security of construction work is prepared and respectively, it is ready to enact. But it is too late. People died in construction sites every month due to non-observation of even ordinary technical safety guidelines. Absence of labor contract between the employer and employee actually led to mutual negligence: owner of the building did not ensure favorable condition and did not have a responsibility for payment of deserved money, while an employee irresponsibly regarded their duties. In better case, it ended at poor quality of the building, and in worth cases collapse of the building, injuries, death cases and d criminal cases. Thus, the newly established Agency is untended to put an end to lack of discipline in the construction sector and carry out work without corruption and other faults.
Only after the tragedy and after the presidential decree, as a result of inspections carried out at construction sites, in September the Labor Inspection under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Azerbaijan halted activity at six companies in response to their violations of technical safety regulations