On November 15, 2018, a rally took place near the walls of the five-star hotel "Premier Palace" in Kyiv. At that time, the National Agency of Ukraine for Finding, Tracing and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (ARMA) was holding a forum with the participation of foreign guests, funded from the state budget.
Representatives of AIS car centers from Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy prepared and sent official complaints to international structures dealing with anti-corruption in Ukraine. The addressees were the head of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative, Eka Tkeshelashvili, the head of the Ukrainian branch of Transparency International, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, and Stefan Schleuning, who oversees cooperation programs at the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
The essence of AIS's claims against ARMA is that the facilities where the enterprises previously operated were transferred to the management of LLC "ZhK Vozdvyzhenka" without open competitive procedures. In addition, according to the protesters, the company committed a number of violations during the acceptance and further operation of these facilities.
The participants of the action put forward several key demands: to annul the agreements between "ZhK Vozdvyzhenka" and ARMA on the management of the car centers' real estate and to organize a fair tender, to respond to the unlawful blocking of the car centers' work by "ZhK Vozdvyzhenka", and to ensure access to the enterprises' property.
The car dealerships and service stations transferred by ARMA to the management of "ZhK Vozdvyzhenka" have been idle for several months. The company does not enter into negotiations on long-term lease of these premises. Due to the halt in the operation of the dealership network, the state treasury loses at least 5 million hryvnias in rent monthly, which AIS enterprises are ready to pay, and losses from unpaid taxes and fees reach 10 million hryvnias per month. Thousands of employees are left without a livelihood.
The first warning picket at AIS car centers took place on October 23, 2018, when the main demands were voiced to ARMA representatives.
Since ARMA completely ignored these appeals, on October 30, 2018, car center employees began an indefinite protest action at the agency's main office in Kyiv.
Currently, the picket participants are waiting for a reaction from the EU Delegation to Ukraine and continue their indefinite duty near the ARMA building.
