Latvian citizens and port specialists Raivis Veckagans will be appointed acting chairman of state-run enterprise Ukrainian Sea Port Authority, the press service of Ukraine's Infrastructure Ministry has reported.

According to the report, Veckagans has over 16 years of successful management in the transport and logistics, shipping and financial services sectors. He was board member and Vice President of Latvian Shipping Company, board member of Rigas Centralais Terminals and board chairman of Riga Container Terminal LLC.

"Despite many attempts of the government and Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine to normalize operations of the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority, this enterprise is the example of inefficiency, corruption and abuse of power. There are many questions about management of the authority. There was no larger resistance of top managers of the enterprise to any proposals of the ministry to settle its operations. We are reshuffling top managers of the Sea Port Authority. This will be a first step in the large-scale reform of the maritime sector," Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said.

He said that he announced the changes early December 2016.

"Maybe, this induced the top managers we are reshuffling to add bonuses of UAH 700,000-1.5 million per person for December. These are only official bonuses. We can only imagine the scale of abuse of office at the state-run enterprise," the minister said.

He also said that the ministry appointed Serhiy Hronsky acting chairman of the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority to normalize the operation of the enterprise.

"This is a temporary measure aimed at establishing the normal working dialog between the ministry and the authority and halt abuse of power at the enterprise. This week new acting head - Raivis Veckagans – will be appointed," he said.