Lawyer: ARMA leadership deliberately blocks the work of the public council because it has something to hide

The Public Council at the Asset Recovery and Management Agency has resigned its powers, as its head, Olena Duma, is afraid of public scrutiny and tried to counteract the supervisors as much as possible. This was stated by lawyer Andriy Potemkin in an exclusive comment to UNN.

Context

The day before, all members of the ARMA Public Council 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. In addition, the council members stated that the ARMA management systematically ignores their appeals and does not involve them in the development of regulations, in violation of the law.

Former Head of ARMA's Legal Department Andriy Potemkin noted that the anti-corruption strategy under which the ARMA law was drafted provided for the use of public control mechanisms, including the creation of a public council as a key guarantee of the effectiveness of the management of seized assets.

"This council was supposed to ensure transparency and control over ARMA's activities, facilitate interaction with the public and take into account public opinion in the course of fulfilling the agency's tasks. However, how can you do this if you are not given information and access to documents and are not allowed to enter the doorway at all," he said.

According to him, this behavior of the head of the ARMA, Olena Duma, indicates that she has something to hide from the public.

"The ARMA leadership is afraid of public scrutiny because they have something to hide, and therefore they are doing everything they can to counteract the work of the Public Council," the lawyer said.

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Recently, the ARMA and its head, Olena Duma, have been increasingly involved in scandals, and experts have made statements about the agency's ineffective work and the need for an international audit of its activities.

Recently, a new scandal began to erupt around ARMA because the agency has been managing about 21,000 Russian-Belarusian railcars for more than two years and has not found a use for them. Only after the media coverage did Olena Duma announce that ARMA had selected a manager for a batch of 436 seized railcars and was launching tender procedures for another 100 railcars.

Former MP Ihor Mosiychuk believes that the head of the ARMA, Olena Duma, may have deliberately delayed the process of finding managers for the Russian-Belarusian railcars, which indicates that she may have been "working for the enemy.

In addition, there are many questions about the valuation of assets that ARMA transfers to management. After all, the agency is supposed to manage assets seized 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 the Truskavets sanatoriumand the garbage trucks transferred to ARMA, which do not contain any information about their valuation.

Security expert Serhiy Shabovta suggests that ARMA selectively publishes information on the valuation of seized property because it is beneficial to them for corrupt reasons. In his opinion, such facts should be addressed by law enforcement.

In general, in recent years, the ARMA has accumulated a lot of property that could not only generate revenue for the state budget, but also be useful during a full-scale war. For example, most of the sanatoriums transferred to ARMA could be used for rehabilitation of wounded soldiers or provide shelter to IDPs.

In addition, ARMA has a lot of heavy equipment that could work 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.