A petition registered on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers to dismiss the head of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency, Olena Duma, may be an impetus to start solving problems with the management of seized property. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by lawyer, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine Volodymyr Bogatyr.
According to him, the key complaint about the work of the ARMA is the quality of the organization of management of seized assets.
"It is clear that the petition registered recently on the Cabinet of Ministers' website to dismiss Olena Duma will not solve the problems by itself, even if it gains the required number of votes. But it can attract attention and give impetus to start solving them with the tools already provided for by law," the lawyer noted.
Among such tools, he mentioned, in particular, the external assessment of ARMA's activities by the so-called external control commission, which consists of three persons appointed by the President, the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers. However, as Ihor Chobitko, the former chairman of the Public Council under the ARMA, told UNN in a comment, it has not been established since the beginning of the ARMA's activities.
"Secondly, it is an annual external audit of ARMA's activities. It is conducted exclusively by an international or national audit company that is recognized and has a high business reputation in the Ukrainian market. Third, there must be public control. It is ensured through the Public Council at the National Agency, whose nine-member composition is approved by the Head of ARMA based on the results of the competition," added Volodymyr Bogatyr.
However, as you know, recently all members of the public council under ARMA resigned and emphasized the lack of transparency in the agency's work.
Context
The website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine published a petition calling for the dismissal of Olena Duma as head of the ARMA due to her alleged ties to pro-Russian politicians and ineffective management of seized assets.
Former MP Ihor Mosiychuk noted that it was his team that initiated the petition and called for signing it in order to "cleanse the state of looters and enemy saboteurs.
In order for the petition to be considered by the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, it must receive 25,000 votes in 90 days.
Add
Statements about the need for an independent audit of the ARMA have been made repeatedly. In particular, Pavlo Demchuk, a legal advisor to Transparency International Ukraine, noted that a full-fledged external audit of the ARMA has never been conducted, and the limited amount of information about the agency's activities may pose corruption risks.
Amid the criticism, ARMA head Olena Duma even made a statement that she had ordered an audit of the agency's activities for 2023 from the Accounting Chamber.
At the same time, it is worth adding that the State Bureau of Investigation is already investigating criminal proceedings on the fact of alleged official negligence by the ARMA leadership. It was opened in March of this year.