ARMA holds thousands of assets, but there are very few tenders: expert calls the agency's efficiency zero
Kyiv • UNN
ARMA holds thousands of seized assets, but holds few competitions for their management. The expert called the agency's effectiveness zero, and its activities non-transparent, as evidenced by the self-dissolution of the public council.
Despite the thousands of seized assets held by the Asset Recovery and Management Agency, the number of successfully completed tenders for their management can be counted on one hand. Former Head of the Central Interregional Territorial Department of the ARMA Vladyslav Romanov in a comment to UNN called the agency's effectiveness almost zero.
According to him, ARMA is currently a closed body and it is very difficult to analyze its activities.
“There is no up-to-date information in the register of seized assets. The priority for holding asset tenders is not entirely clear. Why exactly those assets are selected for asset managers... The most important thing is that the number of successful tenders completed in a year can be counted on one hand. And this is in comparison to the fact that we know that ARMA has thousands of assets... And the fact that 5 tenders were held there means that the efficiency is almost zero,” Romanov said.
He added that with the arrival of the new team at ARMA, the agency's work has become “not transparent at all.
At the same time, the head of the agency, Olena Duma, proudly reportedthat the register of seized property currently contains 324 thousand records of seized assets, the value of which is estimated at more than UAH 100 billion.
“Every day we receive 300 to 700 decisions on seized assets, which we enter into the database. Out of 320,000 records of seized property, 72,000 decisions are on the transfer of such seized assets to the agency's management,” she said.
Despite the impressive figures voiced by ARMA Head Olena Duma regarding the number of seized assets and their value, the low number of tenders for the management of these assets raises questions about the agency's effectiveness. With the growing volume of assets and the absence of a clear strategy for their management, ARMA continues to raise questions about its capacity and transparency.
Add
In general, statements about the non-transparent and ineffective work of the ARMA and its head, Olena Duma, have been made repeatedly. A petition calling for the dismissal of Olena Duma from her position due to her alleged ties to pro-Russian politicians and ineffective management of seized assetshas even appeared on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
In addition, more than three weeks ago all members of the Public Council under ARMA resigned from their positions. At the meeting, they emphasized the lack of transparency in the work of the ARMA and the fact that the agency creates artificial obstacles to the implementation of public control over its activities. They also stated that the ARMA leadership systematically ignores their appeals and does not involve them in the development of regulations, in violation of the law.
Ihor Chobitko, the former chairman of the ARMA Public Council, in his comments to UNN emphasized that after the self-dissolution of the Public Council, ARMA was left without external control, and therefore cannot be called transparent.
