Dubious motives: why is ARMA head Duma blocking the reform of the agency?

The head of the Agency for Search and Asset Management, Olena Duma, publicly and openly opposes the reform of the arrested property management system, which is proposed by deputies and should improve the transparency and efficiency of the institution. Instead, the agency is promoting an alternative bill that does not provide for a real change in the system, writes UNN.

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Recently, Olena Duma again criticized bill No. 12374-d, which has already been supported by the parliament in the first reading. She stated that the document "contains politically motivated norms" and "may harm the entire anti-corruption infrastructure". At the same time, she herself called her work in ARMA a "real breakthrough" - the register has started working, competitions are underway, unprofitable contracts have been terminated, and even billions have been received into the budget.

Since the second half of 2023, ARMA has made a real breakthrough: the Register of Arrested Assets has been introduced, the sale of property and the search for managers through Prozorro, and unprofitable management agreements have been terminated. Thanks to these reforms, billions of hryvnias have already been received into the budget. These successes must be enshrined at the level of the law, and ARMA supports this

At the same time, the head of the Verkhovna Rada's anti-corruption committee, Anastasia Radina, believes that Olena Duma and her colleagues are "deliberately spreading false information" that draft law No. 12374-d on ARMA reform does not meet EU requirements. 

"The only real reason for such behavior is the desire to preserve the existing ineffective system," - emphasized the MP.

She reminded why the system of managing seized assets is ineffective:

• artificial increase in income indicators. ARMA includes in the reporting funds that are only arrested from the defendants in the cases and are on the accounts;

• only 7 new contracts in 1.5 years. This is how many contracts Duma's team concluded;

• there is no accurate information on the number of arrested assets. The agency refused to provide Radina with a complete answer to the deputy's request, and the Register of Arrested Assets itself has not yet been filled with meaningful data;

• the search for a manager lasts an average of one and a half years instead of a few months;

• 87% of the income to the state in 2024 was given by only three contracts with state-owned companies, and they were not selected through ARMA competitions;

• competitions for insiders. Announcements do not contain key information about assets, which scares away real business.

Anastasia Radina noted that draft law No. 12374-d proposes a new approach to the management of seized assets, which, in particular, provides for clear deadlines for finding a manager and attractive conditions for potential managers. 

The head of ARMA calls for voting for bill No. 12374, which contained practically no changes to the asset management system, and which was rejected by the parliament a long time ago, since the parliament supported No. 12374-d in the first reading. The nature of the interest of Mrs. Duma and the ARMA leadership in preserving the current insolvent system of management of seized assets, which is beneficial to the defendants in criminal cases, should be investigated by law enforcement officers. We will reform the asset management system in the interests of Ukrainian society, and not the ARMA leadership with dubious motives

Why Olena Duma is so desperately fighting against the ARMA reform is an open question. But, probably, the answer lies in the unwillingness to lose control. Draft law No. 12374-d limits the possibilities for manipulation, forces the agency to act within clear limits and report transparently. And this is a direct threat to the leadership, which has been used to working without public supervision for years.

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Anastasia Radina previously noted that maintaining a constructive dialogue with ARMA is constantly complicated by manipulations. She cited three examples that demonstrate how the agency distorts data about its activities. Radina cited as one of them the case when the anti-corruption committee approached ARMA with a question about how many assets they have and how many of them have been transferred to management? The agency reported that there are 69,000 assets in the register, and 36,000 have been transferred to management, that is, about 47%. However, a detailed analysis revealed that 20,000 of these 36,000 assets are movable property of Mezhyhirya, including bottles of wine, furniture and documents, which have no independent economic value.

In response, the head of ARMA, Olena Duma, called on the deputy to "analyze the information".