Due to a flawed law, ARMA did not receive UAH 39 billion from seized assets
27 December 14:23
The National Agency for Finding, Tracing and Management of Assets (ARMA) was unable to take over seized assets worth more than UAH 39.4 billion due to the lack of a proper legal mechanism and unregulated interaction with law enforcement. This is stated in the report of the Accounting Chamber based on the results of the audit of ARMA’s activities in 2022-2024, according to Komersant ukrainskyi.
The auditors found that out of more than 100,000 court decisions to seize property, only 1% provided for the transfer of assets to ARMA. At the same time, even these few decisions are often not enforced due to the lack of a clearly defined procedure for transferring assets and low efficiency of interaction with prosecutors and pre-trial investigators.
The problem with accepting cash and non-cash funds, as well as precious metals, into management is particularly acute, as there is no proper legal framework for this.
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The imperfection of management mechanisms has led to other problems. In particular, ARMA does not have complete information on the market value of the assets sold – 61.3% of the property sold has no appraised value. As a result, in some cases, assets were sold at a price lower than the market price – the difference amounted to UAH 769.3 million.
Despite the problems, the agency showed an increase in performance in the first half of 2024. In the period 2022-2024, it received UAH 0.4 billion from asset management, UAH 0.6 billion from cash management, and UAH 1.6 billion from asset sales.
To address the identified problems, ARMA, together with the Prosecutor General’s Office, has developed a draft order on cooperation in the transfer of assets. The agency has also updated its accounting policy, which will allow it to recognize assets worth UAH 51.5 billion in its accounting.
The Accounting Chamber emphasizes that effective management of seized assets is especially important in times of war, as these resources can make a significant contribution to the economic recovery of Ukraine.
