"Incomplete and contains shortcomings": anti-corruption experts recommend ARMA to update the Register of Seized Assets
Kyiv • UNN
Transparency International Ukraine recommends that ARMA update the Register of Seized Assets due to its incompleteness and shortcomings. Experts point to the lack of transparency in the agency's work and inefficient management of seized property.
The Asset Recovery and Management Agency should work on the Unified Register of Seized Property, as it is incomplete and contains numerous shortcomings. This is stated in the report of Transparency International Ukraine on Ukraine's achievements in anti-corruption reform for the period from February 2014 to March 2024.
"At the end of August 2023, the Head of the ARMA informed about the opening of access to the Unified State Register of Property Seized in Criminal Proceedings. Currently, the register is incomplete and contains numerous shortcomings in the quality of the information published, so this needs to be improved
It is worth noting that opening access to the Unified Register of Seized Assets was one of the requirements for Olena Duma to remain as the head of the ARMA. This was demanded by both anti-corruption experts and MPs.
It is obvious that they opened access to the registry in a hurry and only to prevent Olena Duma from losing her position.
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ARMA shall manage the assetsseized in criminal proceedings in order to preserve or increase their economic value. In order to preserve or increase the value of an asset, it must be valued and, by law, entered into the Register of Seized Assets. However, the reality is different, and a good example of this is the story of concealment of the valuation of the Truskavets sanatorium and garbage trucks transferred to ARMA.
In recent years, the ARMA has accumulated a lot of propertythat could not only generate revenue for the state budget, but also be useful during a full-scale war. For example, most of the sanatoriums that have been transferred to ARMA could be used for rehabilitation of wounded soldiers or provide shelter to IDPs.
In addition, the ARMA has a lot of heavy equipment that could be used for the benefit of the state. Excavators and bulldozers could be used to strengthen the defense or restore infrastructure, but in fact they are idle.
Security expert Serhiy Shabovta suggests that ARMA selectively publishes information on the valuation of seized property because it is beneficial to them for corruption reasons. In his opinion, such facts should be addressed by law enforcement.
In general, statements about the non-transparent and ineffective work of the ARMA and its head, Olena Duma, have been made repeatedly. The website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine even published a petition calling for the dismissal of Olena Duma due to her alleged ties to pro-russian politicians and ineffective management of seized assets.
In addition, all members of the ARMA Public Council have 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 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 Public Council under the ARMA, emphasized in a commentary to UNN that after the self-dissolution of the Public Council, the ARMA was left without external control, and therefore the activities of the ARMA cannot be called transparent.
