The head of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency, Olena Duma, emotionally spoke out against draft law No. 12374-d on reforming the agency under her control. She called the document, which will be voted on in the second reading by people's deputies next week, unconstitutional and unrealistic, UNN writes.
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The ARMA reform has become a subject of heated discussion between the government, parliament and international partners. As Forbes Ukraine writes, next week, deputies will vote in the second reading on draft law No. 12374-d, which should change approaches to finding managers for seized assets, selecting the head of ARMA, and conducting audits. These requirements are stipulated in the EU financial support program Ukraine Facility, under which the government should receive EUR 12.5 billion from the program this year. The ARMA reform is supported by anti-corruption experts from Transparency International Ukraine, deputies from the anti-corruption and financial committees of the Verkhovna Rada.
However, according to Olena Duma, the statement that delaying the reform may jeopardize Ukraine's funding from the EU is artificial panic.
Who benefits from the panic? The question is rhetorical. To those who seek to push through dubious norms under the guise of "European requirements." To those who are trying to preserve their own reputation at the expense of discrediting a working institution. Manipulative attempts to nullify the work of each member of the ARMA team will not succeed. The public and our international partners see the results — billions that are returned to the state thanks to the agency's professional work
Olena Duma continues to argue that the ARMA reform has actually been taking place since 2023, that is, since she headed the agency. At the same time, she accuses opponents, namely anti-corruption experts, European partners and people's deputies, of covering up their own miscalculations by discrediting the current system of seized assets.
Over the past 2 years, ARMA has proven its effectiveness with figures: billions of hryvnias are transferred to the state budget thanks to the management of seized assets. We have carried out a real reform since the second half of 2023, and we are ready to enshrine it in law
In her statement, the head of ARMA once again emphasizes that the agency allegedly demonstrates "efficiency in numbers." At the same time, as reported by Transparency International Ukraine based on the results of the analysis of ARMA's report for 2024, the agency announced 33 tenders for the selection of managers throughout the past year, but only seven management agreements were concluded. At the same time, ARMA publicly cites "amazing" figures on 224 competitive selections of appraisers, 89 winning appraisers, and 33 announcements on open tenders with management features. However, as TI noted, all these efforts resulted in seven management agreements.
Whether the people's deputies will adopt draft law No. 12374-d and whether the real reform of ARMA will begin — the next plenary week will show. But it is already obvious that the agency's leadership is most afraid of changes. After all, the draft law not only changes approaches to the management of seized assets, but also provides for a new transparent procedure for electing the head of ARMA. It is likely that it is the prospect of losing the "chair" and control over assets that causes Olena Duma to react so emotionally to any attempts to change the system.