The State Enterprise "SETAM" OpenMarket of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine was transferred into the management of the National Agency of Ukraine for Finding, Tracing and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (the Asset Recovery and Management Agency, ARMA).

The Ministry of Justice supports the decentralization of functions of executive bodies and elimination of the toolkit, which is gradually losing its vital necessity. This was outlined by a representative of the institution during a press conference on February 7.

Earlier, the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine №212-р from March 11, 2015, provided that a state enterprise in the field of management of the Ministry of Justicthe be an organizer of electronic auctions.

However, on February 6, 2019 the Government has decided to alter the conditions of the experiment on the sale of seized property in the enforcement proceedings. In particular, it was established that from now on the organizer of electronic auctions shall be determined by competition.

 “Why ARMA and why SETAM? Today, ARMA is the largest specialized body for the management of confiscated and seized property, the development of which our country needs so much. I want to say that this is not a decision of the Ministry of Justice personally. Yesterday, this decision was made at a Government meeting, - noted First Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olena Sukmanova. - ARMA addressed this proposal to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (secure vehicle compounds), the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (ProZorro) and the Ministry of Justice with a request to transfer the state enterprise, which has the appropriate capacity to store, sell and work with property assets. That is why the Ministry of Justice decided to go forward with the development of activities in this direction and, realizing the need to support this decision, decided to transfer the SE “SЕТАМ” to the area of ​​ ARMA`s governance”.

The Head of ARMA Anton Yanchuk stated that ARMA is interested primarily in the logistics infrastructure of the SЕТАМ. After all, the state enterprise has a developed warehouse and logistics infrastructure in all regions of Ukraine and more than 200 employees who can carry out the work necessary for ARMA to perform its tasks.

ARMA has a need in obtaining complex services for identification, inventory, packaging, transportation, storage of assets from the moment they are transferred to ARMA by a court decision and until they are transferred to the manager or for sale,  -said the Head of ARMA Anton Yanchuk. - We analysed the market and concluded, that at present no one provides such complex services on the market. Purchasing these services alone is a complex, lengthy and expensive process. Most importantly, it creates risks of property damage. Now, the logistics and warehouse capacities of the SE “SЕТАМ” can meet ARMA’s demand for such services”.

During the press conference, Director General of SE "SETAM" Viktor Vyshnov recalled that SETAM was created 4 years ago as an experiment to overcome corruption, which is typical for the sale of seized property - from determining of the bidding organizer to the admission of participants, from fraud during the auction to the dismantling seized cars, from the possibility of negotiating anything to the banal thefts of property that was in storage.

“In my opinion, SETAM has managed to fundamentally change the system: to introduce fair mechanisms for access to trading, to guarantee the safety of asset retention, to guarantee the safety of rates through blockchain. And it turned into concrete results, - said V. Vyshnov. - So, only in 2018, OpenMarket sold property for UAH 2.7 billion and started conducting electronic land auctions in Ukraine. We see a perspective in cooperation with ARMA on the development of new branches of complex services. Our strategic goal is a system consisting of the storage, management and sale of property”.

Viktor Vyshnov assured that cooperation with ARMA will allow SE “SETAM” to expand the functionality of activities in new spheres and increase revenues to the state budget of Ukraine.