We sincerely thank Anastasiia Radina, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy and the team of the Institute of Legislative Ideas for organizing this professional discussion and providing the opportunity for an open exchange on the first results of the implementation of the ARMA reform.
It is precisely professional dialogue, openness to well-reasoned arguments and a shared commitment to meaningful change that create the foundation for the successful implementation of the reform.
During the event, Bohdan Koval, Acting Head of the Legal Support Department of ARMA, emphasized that the entire necessary regulatory and legal framework for the full implementation of the reform has now been adopted. The Commission for the Selection of the Manager of a Complex Asset has commenced its work, the first competitive procedures for selecting asset managers have been launched and the new mechanisms are gradually moving from legislative design to practical implementation.
The reform is intended to ensure not only the transfer of assets into management but, above all, their proper identification. This will make it possible to transfer into management only those assets for which ARMA is able to ensure effective management and the preservation of their economic value. At the same time, in order to complete the establishment of this system, it remains important to introduce the relevant amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
At the same time, practice once again demonstrates that the success of the reform depends not only on the quality of legislative decisions but also on the capacity of state institutions to implement them in practice.
Today, the Agency’s team is working under conditions where the scale of the tasks assigned by the state significantly exceeds the available resources. Insufficient funding for asset valuation procedures and asset preservation measures, as well as any factors that may affect the Agency’s institutional independence or the motivation of its professionals, objectively slow down the pace of implementing the reform.
The key task is to focus on the practical implementation of the reform. Step by step, ARMA is introducing new mechanisms whose effectiveness will determine the quality of the entire system for the management of seized assets. At the same time, we look forward to the international audit, which will provide a comprehensive assessment of the functioning of this system, identify directions for its further development and formulate recommendations that will contribute to preserving the economic value of assets, supporting economic recovery, and ensuring justice.
At present, the ARMA team continues to implement the reform in a systematic manner, step by step putting new mechanisms into operation.
Every successful story has a stage during which the most important work remains almost invisible to the outside observer. Only later does it become evident that it was precisely this work that laid the foundation without which further changes would have been impossible.
