ARMA is going to change: EU Delegation demands transparency in asset management
Kyiv • UNN
The EU Delegation calls on Ukraine to reform ARMA by the end of the first quarter of 2025. The reform should include transparent selection of the head, independent performance evaluation and transparency of asset management.
The EU Delegation is demanding that the Asset Recovery and Management Agency be reformed to continue providing financial assistance to Ukraine. This was reported in the press service of the Delegation in response to a request by UNN.
The diplomatic body emphasized that Ukraine has committed itself to reforming the legislative framework for ARMA and its activities by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
The reform should include several important aspects, such as a transparent selection of the head of ARMA, including verification of his integrity and professionalism. It is also necessary to establish an independent system of external evaluation of the agency's activities and to ensure transparency in the management and sale of assets transferred to ARMA.
The European Commission is in contact with the Government of Ukraine on the implementation of these commitments
They also noted that they will monitor ARMA's activities and are ready to provide technical assistance and support the development of the Ukrainian agency's capacity, if the need arises.
Context
The Ukraine Facility program (the EU's financial support program for Ukraine) envisages providing Ukraine with 50 billion euros over the next four years. As reported by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, among the requirements for the funding, among other things, in the first quarter of 2025, the ARMA should be reformed, which should include changes in the selection of the agency's head and a transparent procedure for managing and selling seized assets.
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Statements about the non-transparent and ineffective work of the ARMA and its head, Olena Duma, have been made repeatedly. A petition has even appeared on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine calling for the dismissal of Olena Duma from her position due to her alleged ties to pro-Russian politicians and ineffective management of seized assets.
In addition, all members of the ARMA's public council recently resigned. 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 management 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 public council at the ARMA, in a commentary to UNN , emphasizedthat after the self-dissolution of the public council, the ARMA was left without external control, and therefore cannot be called transparent.
