KYIV. Feb 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Asset Recovery and Management Agency of Ukraine (ARMA) advocates the need to legally grant the agency the right to make decisions on the sale of assets.

At a press conference on Monday at Interfax-Ukraine, Deputy Head of ARMA Volodymyr Pavlenko said that currently the agency has the function of transferring assets to management and the function of selling assets.

According to him, part of the assets is transferred to ARMA without asking the agency's opinion.

"It is impossible to manage what no one needs. You can try to sell it, but it does not necessarily mean that it will work out," he said.

In this context, Pavlenko stressed the need to introduce a planning procedure before the seizure of an asset.

"Before transferring, think about what ARMA will do with this [...] Prosecutors may turn to ARMA [...] It would be advisable to introduce this rule at the legislative level," the agency's deputy head said.

Pavlenko said another problematic point that requires legislative regulation is "assets that cannot be managed or sold either." As an example, he cited assets in the form of land plots.

"We need the function of preserving the asset so that we can not sell or transfer it to management," he said, adding that this requires funds to ensure the protection of the asset, which ARMA does not have now.

Speaking about the function of selling assets, Pavlenko said the agency is often accused of illegal sale of something. However, according to the deputy head of the department, ARMA "sells only what cannot be managed," and the agency does not sell real estate or any significant objects and has never sold it.

"We were given medical masks for management, not for implementation. If someone knows how to manage medical masks, and then return them back, then let him tell me," the ARMA deputy said.

The same, according to him, applies to the vehicles transferred to ARMA for management.

"It is pointless to drive them, because the management fee is much less than the depreciation of the vehicle. If we have a ten-year-old Bentley in our management [...] it will only cost to change tires there like a new Lanos. So, in general, automotive equipment should be sold," Pavlenko said.

He said if the right to sell is not indicated in the court ruling, then the agency can only transfer the asset to management.

"ARMA must, at its own discretion, determine what to sell and what not, based on professional knowledge and responsibilities," the deputy head of the agency said.

"If these are masks, firewood, cars, abandoned sheds, they should be sold," he said.

Pavlenko said European structures similar to ARMA have such powers.

The deputy head of the agency said that for assets that are of strategic or public importance, the selection of managers should be carried out not by ARMA, but by the Cabinet of Ministers.