How much does it cost to maintain ARMA and is it worth the cost to the budget

The Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) is increasingly being criticized for its inefficiency. The alarming trend is reinforced by the fact that the costs of maintaining this structure significantly exceed the revenues it brings to the state budget, UNN writes.

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For more than seven years, Ukraine has had a separate body to deal with asset recovery and management - the ARMA. However, according to official data, the economic effect of this structure's activities only in 2023 exceeded the amount of state spending on its maintenance. Thus, the state budget expenditures for ARMA's activities in 2023 amounted to UAH 171.1 million, and revenues totaled UAH 191.1 million. This means that for six years the state maintained a body that did not generate any revenue at all.

If we calculate the costs of maintaining the ARMA for all the years of its existence, the total budget is more than a billion hryvnias. And the income for all this time is only about UAH 300 million.

The reasons for this imbalance can vary from inefficient asset management to poorly designed operational processes. Many assets that come under ARMA's management are simply idle or depreciated. 

Against this background, a logical question arises: is it advisable to maintain a separate body when its functions can be transferred to another state institution? One possible alternative is to transform ARMA into a department of the Deposit Guarantee Fund. The DGF has experience in handling assets and has mechanisms to ensure their efficient management and sale. This would reduce the cost of maintaining a separate body and improve the efficiency of managing seized assets.

Therefore, given ARMA's financial imbalances, it is time to question its feasibility. Should we continue to spend money on a body that generates meager revenues compared to its expenses? 

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The scandal of the ARMA's failure to sell the Royal Romance yacht, which belonged to former MP Viktor Medvedchuk, a suspect in high treason, has not yet subsided.

After researching the topic, we found out that the main delay with the sale of the yacht of the traitorous ex-MP arose because the head of ARMA, Olena Duma, had been preparing changes to the legislation for the sale of foreign assets for almost six months. At the same time, at the time of her appointment to the ARMA, the Prosecutor General's Office, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had already prepared a draft of the changes, but Duma categorically rejected it.

In this regard, the ARMA only launched a tender on March 20, 2024, to select a seller to sell the yacht, and a month later it finally selected the winner. It is worth noting that the selection of the winner took place a month before the expiration of the maximum period of seizure of this asset, which made its sale virtually impossible.

Former MP Ihor Mosiychuk believes that ARMA head Olena Duma acted in Medvedchuk's interests by delaying the sale of his yacht. He calls for an investigation into whether this was intentional or due to incompetence.