During the meeting, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Olena Duma as the new head of the Agency for Search and Asset Management (ARMA).
The MP from the "Voice" party and first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (the Ukrainian Parliament) Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Yaroslav Zheleznyak stated this.
At the same time, the government and ARMA have not yet announced a new appointment.
The G7 countries have expressed concern about the appointment of the ARMA chairman. And they emphasized the importance of following proper procedures to strengthen the Agencyʼs credibility.
Why the ARMA head is important?
Almost all seized Russian and Belarusian assets are transferred to ARMA. The new leader must ensure that thousands of seized assets do not disappear, depreciate and, after confiscation, benefit the state.
Currently, ARMA manages assets worth more than 5 billion hryvnias.
The first head of the agency Anton Yanchuk was suspended by the government after being accused of disrupting the heating season in Lviv region, and recently he was suspected of embezzling 400 million hryvnias.
His successor Vitaliy Syhydin, who served as the head of the institution until 2021, left the agency on suspicion of misappropriating $400 000.
In August 2021, Dmytro Zhoravovich began to perform the duties of the head of ARMA, and in September the composition of the commission was approved, which was to elect a new permanent head of the agency — for the first time in two years.
- On June 28, civil servant Olena Duma won the competition for the selection of the head of ARMA. Six out of eight members of the competition commission voted for this decision. Later, one of the members withdrew his vote for the Duma.