The Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) presented a report for 2024, which, according to the indicators, demonstrates "successes". However, an analysis of this document by Transparency International Ukraine shows a completely different picture: behind the impressive figures lies the complete inefficiency of the agency. This was stated by Pavlo Demchuk, Senior Legal Advisor at TI Ukraine, UNN writes.
The ARMA report is full of impressive moments - billions of hryvnias of "identified assets", significant revenues to the budget, huge volumes of management. But if you dig deeper, all these successes are no longer so bright. For example, it turns out that in the whole of 2024, the agency selected only seven managers for seized assets, while many units of seized property remain ownerless.
He noted that in 2024, ARMA reported on the search for more than 141,000 units of property. However, according to the figures in the agency's report, on average, about 7.8% of the identified assets are seized for all types of assets, and less than 3% of the total amount of searched property is transferred to management.
And this indicates a colossal gap between the high-profile figures of detection and the real results. Of course, the seizure of property and the transfer of assets to management do not depend on ARMA, but on the work of prosecutors and court decisions. But such indicators may also indicate the low quality of information provided by the Agency, which makes effective seizure and transfer of assets to management impossible
According to him, ARMA's performance in managing seized assets is no less disturbing and remains consistently low. In 2024, 33 tenders were announced for the selection of managers, but only seven management agreements were concluded.
The Agency's communication on these issues is also interesting. In one of the posts, ARMA cites "amazing" figures on 224 competitive selections of appraisers, 89 winning appraisers, and 33 announcements of open tenders with management features. However, all these efforts resulted in seven management agreements
According to Demchuk, real income is provided only by several state-owned companies with which agreements were concluded before the current leadership. The rest of the assets are either idle or continue to generate profits for the previous owners.
It is important to understand that ARMA is not a fiscal body. Its main task is not to fill the budget, but to ensure effective management of seized assets. When only a meager percentage of the entire mass of identified assets receives managers, and even less is really effectively managed, we can confidently talk about systemic problems in the work of the body
Let us remind you
Olena Duma has repeatedly criticized draft law No. 12374-d on ARMA reform, which has already been supported by the Parliament in the first reading. She stated that the document "contains politically motivated norms" and "may harm the entire anti-corruption infrastructure." At the same time, she calls her work in ARMA a "real breakthrough." At the same time, the head of the Verkhovna Rada Anti-Corruption Committee, Anastasia Radina, believes that Olena Duma and her colleagues are "deliberately spreading false information" about the draft law on ARMA reform in order to preserve the existing ineffective system.
Transparency International Ukraine actually supported Anastasia Radina's position and stated that the resistance of the head of ARMA, Olena Duma, is nothing more than a reluctance to get rid of levers of influence. Anti-corruption experts conducted a content analysis of ARMA's public communication and concluded that instead of a constructive dialogue on reforming the institution, the agency has built a campaign to discredit draft law No. 12374-d on changing the management system of seized property and avoids any public acknowledgment of its own mistakes.