formats, which make it impossible to aggregate public landholdings across agencies for a developmental unit like a municipality or a metropolitan region. The United States only recently has introduced legislation, still pending, that would require its various national agencies for the first time to inventory land ownership in a common format. Meanwhile, the US Government Accountability Office has officially labeled federal land-asset management as a “high-risk” management area beset by information gaps and non-compatible reporting.

Introducing common, intergovernmental norms for recording and inventorying public land assets should be a policy priority for India. An overhaul of the reporting practice would be easiest to implement in the context of accounting reforms that require different levels of government to prepare balance sheets as well as budgets and annual financial reports. Land assets would figure on the asset side of agencies’ balance sheets. Reporting in this fashion would highlight the large role that publicly owned land could play in public finances. Reform of this type is a large undertaking, so it would probably make the most sense to start with a demonstration project in one municipality and corresponding metropolitan area.

At least as important as improving the quality of public land inventories is making them publicly accessible. A publicly accessible inventory of public lands is an essential element in accountability. Any lands being offered for sale or transfer should be flagged for public examination. An “accessible” inventory is not only one that the public has the right to access, but one that is designed to be user-friendly. That implies being able to sort the inventory by different characteristics, such as vacant properties or properties owned by a certain agency, and having maps to assist users in accessing information. As examples of these capabilities: Users can access the City of Chicago’s land database to identify 245 pages of unoccupied parcels owned by the city, with lot sizes and locations. Users accessing the land database of the Singapore Land Authority or the State of Berlin’s Liegenschaftsfonds (see next Section) can use a map to identify the location of each parcel, then zero in on a particular parcel to see its exact configuration and parcel characteristics, along with the characteristics of adjoining parcels.

# **IDENTIFYING “SURPLUS” LAND**

“Surplus” land or property can be defined as property that is not needed, or not appropriate, for provision of the public service for which the agency owning the property is responsible. In the simplest case, land is vacant and not planned for future service use. In a more complex case, land may presently be in use, but planned to be vacated as part of improvements in service efficiency. Identifying “surplus” land may be thought of as a “supply-driven” approach to public land disposition. That is, land is not readied for disposition in response to demand for it in an alternative use. It is deemed “surplus” or “unwanted for service use” on its own terms, without regard to its market value or value in an alternative use. Once a list of “surplus” land has been identified, market forces and perhaps other agents of government can focus on the surplus parcels and express demand for them.

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