The Infrastructure Ministry is to appoint new heads at the USPA by January 13 / Photo from nv.ua
Ukraine's Infrastructure Ministry has announced an anti-corruption reshuffle at state-run Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) and plans to tap Raivis Veckagans, a Latvian specialist in management of transport and logistics, this week to work as the authority's acting head.
The decision was made as part of the launch of sweeping reforms in the maritime industry, a key aspect of which is USPA reorganization, the ministry's press service reported with reference to its head Volodymyr Omelyan.
In general, the reform envisages the creation of a maritime administration, which will take over all the tasks of the USPA. The ministry is set to thoroughly streamline the authority's structure and personnel and conduct corporatization.
Prior to Veckagans' appointment, head of the USPA's legal department Serhiy Hronsky will work as acting chairman to "establish normal working dialogue" between the ministry and the USPA, as well as deter personnel from abuse of office, the press service said.
"Despite repeated attempts by the government and the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine to set the USPA back on track, this state-owned enterprise is still an example of inefficiency, corruption and abuse. Many questions re USPA manageability also arise. What is more, we've never seen such reluctance on the part of the enterprise's management in response to any idea put forth by the ministry to streamline its work. All of our solutions were either blocked or ignored. Therefore, we are set to replace the USPA's management, which is to be the first step in large-scale reform of the maritime industry," the press service quoted Omelyan as saying.
The minister cites as an example the case when the USPA managers were awarded bonuses worth between UAH 700,000 and UAH 1.5 million per person in December 2016 alone.
"And these are official sums of the bonuses. One can only imagine the extent of abuse at the state enterprise. New acting head of the USPA Raivis Veckagans is to be appointed as soon as this week," the minister said.
Veckagans has Latvian citizenship, the press service said. His experience in managing transport and logistics, and in shipping and financial service companies exceeds 16 years. He was Chief Financial Officer, Board Member and Vice President at the Latvian Shipping Company. He also worked as member of the Board and then Chairman of the Board at LLC Rīgas Centrālais Termināls, the largest bulk and general cargo processing port terminal in the Baltic States. He was also Chairman of the Board of Riga Container Terminal, the only container terminal in the Port of Riga that provides sea-rail transshipment services.
Read alsoUkraine ports to set record for grain handlingAs UNIAN reported earlier, Acting Chairman of the USPA Yuriy Nakonechny on January 10 sent letters to Minister Omelyan and State Secretary of the Ministry Andriy Halushchak, asking to consider the legal basis of the appointment of Hronsky as head of the authority under an order issued by the ministry on January 6. Nakonechny insists that the order was prepared in violation of the law and should be rescinded.
The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority is a unitary enterprise based on the right of economic jurisdiction. It has 13 branches in the seaports of Ukraine, as well as a branch of Delta-Pilot. The USPA employs more than 8,000 people.