Lawyer: Audit can improve efficiency of ARMA's work with seized assets

The biggest problem in the work of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency is the lack of open information about seized property and its improper management. An audit of the Agency may be one of the options to improve the situation. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by Oleh Shram, a lawyer and former advisor to the head of the State Bureau of Investigation.

"ARMA's biggest problem is the issue of working with seized assets, their proper accounting and so on. ARMA has two components - tracing and management. While the situation with tracing is more or less normal, asset management is a big problem," he said.

In his opinion, one of the ways to improve the agency's work and increase trust in its activities is through an audit.

"In order to analyze the problem of proper asset management, we need to understand how many assets there are, where they are, and then move on to how many of them have not been transferred to management, the reasons for this. And then move on to the procedure for transferring these assets to the appropriate management... The audit should help make ARMA's work more transparent and, accordingly, increase confidence in the agency," said Oleh Shram.

Context

Recently, Transparency International Ukraine presented a report on Ukraine's achievements in anti-corruption reform for the period from February 2014 to March 2024. Among other things, anti-corruption activists emphasized the need for an independent audit of the ARMA to improve its performance.

In general, statements about the need for an independent external audit of the ARMA have been made repeatedly. Amid the criticism, ARMA Head Olena Duma even made a statement that she had ordered an audit of the agency's activities for 2023 from the Accounting Chamber.

MP Oleksiy Kucherenko believesthat the results of the audit of the Accounting Chamber may be grounds for dismissal of ARMA head Olena Duma.