Yaroslava Maksimenko, who was recently director of the property policy and sanctions department at the Ministry of Economy, and before that, she headed the then state-owned United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC) for a certain period of time, and served as acting chair of the National Agency for Asset Tracing and Management (ARMA).
“Yaroslava is a specialist with many years of experience in law, state asset management, sanctions policy, and international cooperation. She headed the property and sanctions policy department in our ministry and worked continuously with assets that later ended up in ARMA, so she knows the system inside out,” wrote Economy Minister Alexei Sobolev on Facebook, introducing Maksimenko to the ARMA team.
According to him, the recently updated version of the law on ARMA, which has already come into force, has strengthened the agency’s institutional capacity.
“The new version of the law will strengthen the tools for managing seized assets, transfer strategic assets to state-owned companies, and allocate certain assets for defense and military rehabilitation. It will also ensure greater control through Prozorro and expand public reporting tools,” Sobolev explained.
He also recalled that the reform of ARMA is part of Ukraine’s commitments to its European partners under the Ukraine Facility.
“The top priorities for ARMA now will be to conduct an independent audit and a new competitive selection procedure for the head of the agency, which we will monitor closely,” the minister added.
According to Interfax-Ukraine and the declarations of the new head of ARMA, among other things, she was a member of the supervisory board of the Odessa Port Plant (OPZ) and the Nikolaev Thermal Power Plant, and until July 2021, she was the founder and head of the law firm Stalex and Partners, and now owns the LLC “Legal Company AS.”
Before Maksimenko, the position of ARMA deputy chair for European integration was held by former Georgian ambassador to Ukraine Grigol Katamadze. At the end of July, the government also dismissed the agency’s head, Elena Duma.