Both the chairman of the management board, Ain Kaljurand, and a member, Allan Kiil, have resigned after it was revealed in the Estonian media that they have been under investigation for accepting bribes. Kaljurand’s position is equivalent to that of chief executive officer or managing director.
The state-owned supervisory board named current chief financial officer Marko Raid and lawyer Carri Ginter as their temporary replacements. “With these decisions we guarantee the sustainable and transparent management of the company,” Chairman of the Supervisory Board Remo Holsmer stated, “The main tasks of Carri Ginter is to guarantee the co-operation with investigators at all levels and the evaluation of Port of Tallinn’s internal processes and their re-organisation if necessary.”
“The task for Marko Raid, who has years of experience at Port of Tallinn, is to organise the management of the company on a daily basis,” he outlined.
“We will shortly announce a public competition for the posts of new members of the management board and make sure that security checks are carried out on the candidates. In addition to management board changes, we will make changes in the staff of the supervisory board and their working order.”
Altogether eight people have been arrested and taken into custody, which can be for up to six months. The six others were said by the Estonian media to be a group of Estonian businessmen involved in the transit sector who had offered bribes from 2009 onwards.
While Ginter said he will review old procurement documents, Marko Raid said in a statement, “If a person allegedly received a bribe during a transaction, it does not automatically mean the deal is annulled.”
Port of Tallinn also re-affirmed this saying it will continue to fulfil its contractual obligations and that the arrests will not form any basis for terminating valid ones.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
