The head of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA), Olena Duma, should be held responsible for the situation with the sale of a yacht belonging to former MP Viktor Medvedchuk, a suspect in high treason. This opinion was expressed by Ruslan Bortnik, Director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management, in an exclusive commentary to UNN.
Context
The ARMA boasted of the successful sale of one buggy and one ATV belonging to Medvedchuk. This statement came almost immediately after it became known that due to the delays of the agency's new leadership, Ukraine could lose one of Medvedchuk's most expensive assets, the Royal Romance yacht worth almost UAH 8.5 billion.
This is a very strange situation. First of all, this case is very highlighted. This is not a situation that can be forgotten, accidentally forgotten, because it is a situation of little significance. This is a situation of great significance, a political and economic situation, a significant economic object, and therefore, in my opinion, such a delay (with the sale of Medvedchuk's yacht - ed.) is a sign of either unprofessionalism or corruption, which has created a situation in which this property may be lost by the state,
He emphasized that both in the case of professional negligence and corruption, the head of the ARMA, Olena Duma, must be held accountable.
In general, there are a lot of questions to ARMA. The efficiency of management of confiscated property by this state body is extremely low,
According to him, expert estimates indicate that only 5% of the value of the property transferred to ARMA can be attracted to the state budget.
It seems to me that the entire agency should be rebooted, it should be formed on the model of a structure, perhaps, of the NABU or the NAPC. The ARMA should be extremely transparent, all actions should be transparent, because there are a lot of corruption issues regarding this agency in literally every major case,
At the same time, he believes that by selling Medvedchuk's ATV and buggy, the head of the ARMA, Olena Duma, is trying to "cover up" the failure to sell Medvedchuk's yacht. Bortnik emphasized that the sale of the yacht should be strictly controlled.
These things need to be kept under primary control. We understand that if Medvedchuk's yacht is lost, it will not only be a loss of a material object, it will be a political defeat for Ukraine and the Ukrainian state,
Recall
On Tuesday, July 23, it became known that the ARMA cannot sell one of Viktor Medvedchuk's most expensive seized assets, the Royal Romance yacht, because a court in Croatia has canceled the seizure of the property.
The Office of the Prosecutor General notedthat throughout the seizure, efforts were made to develop mechanisms that would allow ARMA to sell the property located abroad. However, the new ARMA leadership allowed delays in this process and started the procedure for the sale of the yacht only on March 20, 2024, almost 2 years after the arrest.