“Inefficient and non-transparent”: political scientist called for a transparent audit of ARMA's work and personnel changes

The Asset Recovery and Management Agency in its current form does not perform its functions effectively and has turned into a tool for "serving interests", as evidenced by the latest scandal with the transfer of the House of Trade Unions to management. A full-fledged audit should be a step towards rebooting the agency. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive comment to UNN by political scientist Vitaliy Kulyk.

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Recently, a new scandal erupted around ARMA - according to a journalistic investigation, the House of Trade Unions on Maidan Nezalezhnosti was transferred to the management of a consortium, which includes a company that may be related to the former husband of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine – Minister of Justice Olga Stefanishyna. She categorically denied any involvement in the possible scheme.

According to Kulyk, ARMA, under the leadership of Olena Duma, does not demonstrate openness and transparency in its work.

I see how ARMA is used to carry out raider seizures of premises, including trade unions. And this looks to me like using the structure for someone's personal commercial purposes

The political scientist also drew attention to the fact that the agency's management systematically torpedoes draft law No. 12374-d, which provides for the reform of the system of management of seized property. In his opinion, ARMA undermines confidence in the entire asset management system.

In this format, in which it currently functions, it seems to me that it is extremely ineffective, non-transparent, and it is a solution to some skin issues, someone's interests of service, and not the work of the structure 

In his opinion, it is necessary to adopt a draft law on reforming the agency and conduct a full-fledged audit.

The audit should result in personnel decisions

Let us remind you

ARMA, under the leadership of Olena Duma, has repeatedly been at the center of scandals involving seized property. The latest investigation only underscores the arguments in favor of the urgent adoption of draft law 12374-d on reforming the system of management of seized property, which also provides for a transparent audit of the agency's work and new conditions for the appointment of the management of this body. 

Olena Duma has repeatedly criticized draft law No. 12374-d on the reform of ARMA, 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 calls her work at ARMA a "real breakthrough". At the same time, the head of the Verkhovna Rada's anti-corruption committee, Anastasia Radina, believes that Olena Duma and her colleagues "deliberately spread false information" about the draft law on the reform of ARMA in order to preserve the existing ineffective system.

Transparency International Ukraine actually supported Anastasia Radina's position and stated that the resistance of the head of ARMA Olena Duma is nothing more than a reluctance to get rid of levers of influence. Anti-corruption experts conducted a content analysis of ARMA's public communication and came to the conclusion that instead of a constructive dialogue on reforming the institution, the agency has built a campaign to discredit draft law No. 12374-d on changing the system of management of seized property and avoids any public recognition of its own mistakes.