On Thursday, April 4, the first meeting of the Board of the National Agency of Ukraine for Finding, Tracing and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (ARMA) was held under the chairmanship of Olena Duma and the Board approved its members.

The Board consists of 28 members, including ARMA leadership, representatives of Cabinet of Ministers, Verkhovna Rada, National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service and the Business Ombudsman.

In particular, besides the Agency's officials, it includes:

Roman Vashchuk - Business Ombudsman

Nataliia Aliushyna– Head of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service

Kostiantyn Marievich - First Deputy State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine; 

Alexander Tkachenko - Member of Ukrainian Parliament, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Legal Regulation and Analysis of the Activities of Special Bodies in the Field of Preventing and Combating Corruption of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy. 

The main functions of the body consist of discussing and making decisions on the prospects as well as the most important areas of ARMA's activities, formulating and implementing state policy in the field of asset finding and tracing, improving legislation and expanding international cooperation. 

The following issues were considered at the board meeting:

• ARMA's performance results for 2023;
• priority areas of the Work Plan for 2024;
• consideration of the issue of determining the guaranteed payment while concluding an asset management agreement.

Olena Duma presented the results of the Agency's work in 2023.

"In 2023, ARMA demonstrated record-breaking results. Thus, the revenues to the State Budget of Ukraine in 2023 amounted to UAH 191 million, of which UAH 101.3 million came from the management of ARMA assets. The figures speak for themselves. And this is despite the fact that over the past six months we have been focused on preparing the regulatory framework to enable us to manage assets more effectively. Therefore, by 2024, we have already prepared the legislative framework and expect billions of UAH in budget revenues," emphasised Head of the Agency.

Grigol Katamadze, Deputy Head for European Integration of ARMA, outlined the priority areas of work for 2024. In particular, on ensuring the formation and implementation of the state policy in the field of finding, tracing and management of assets:

• Information and analytical support for asset finding and tracing;
• improvement of the The Unified State Register of Assets Seized in Criminal Proceedings;
• ensuring effective cooperation with international and intergovernmental organisations;
• approving an action plan for the implementation of the Asset Recovery Strategy for 2023-2025;
• improving the procedure for monitoring the effectiveness of asset management.

The next meeting will be held in accordance with the Tentative Schedule of the Board's meetings.