The public opposes the Duma's resistance: RISE Ukraine called on MPs to support the ARMA reform

The RISE Ukraine Coalition appealed to the Verkhovna Rada with a call to immediately adopt draft law No. 12374-d, which provides for a comprehensive reform of the Asset Search and Management Agency, writes UNN.

Details

This week, deputies will vote in the second reading on draft law No. 12374-d, which should change the approaches to finding managers for seized assets, selecting the head of ARMA and conducting an audit. These requirements are specified in the plan of the EU financial support program Ukraine Facility, under which the government should receive EUR 12.5 billion from the program this year. The ARMA reform is supported by anti-corruption experts from Transparency International Ukraine, deputies from the anti-corruption and financial committees of the Verkhovna Rada. However, Olena Duma, the head of ARMA, is actively opposing this draft law. 

According to public organizations and activists, draft law No. 12374-d is a critical step to ensure transparent and effective management of seized assets, which directly affects the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Reconstruction and liquidation of the consequences of the war require significant financial resources. The Fund for the Liquidation of the Consequences of Armed Aggression, which should be filled from sanctioned assets, has already become one of the key instruments for financing reconstruction. However, today the system of management of seized sanctioned assets creates room for manipulation, in particular through poorly thought-out state policy on ensuring sanction confiscation by criminal arrests 

According to RISE Ukraine, draft law No. 12374-d solves this problem by providing for a clear mechanism for transferring sanctioned assets from ARMA to the State Property Fund for their further sale for the benefit of the state. In addition, the document:

• regulates asset identification procedures;
• improves the management of various types of assets; 
• increases the transparency of ARMA's work;
• unblocks the management of corporate rights of companies associated with the aggressor state;
• settles the issue of seized sanctioned assets.

Activists emphasize that draft law No. 12374-d is the best of the initiatives in parliament regarding the ARMA reform, which takes into account previous proposals and recommendations from both Ukrainian and international experts.

The adoption of draft law No. 12374-d is an important step towards introducing effective and clear asset management mechanisms, as well as ensuring transparent and high-quality  control over these processes. Therefore, the RISE Ukraine Coalition calls on the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to immediately consider and support draft law No. 12374-d 

Let us remind you

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 ARMA reform 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 concluded 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 managing seized property and avoids any public recognition of its own mistakes.