Maritime and River Transport Service plans to increase employees' salaries two-three times in order to eliminate corruption risks

KYIV. Sept 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The State Service of Maritime and River Transport (Maritime Administration) plans to increase salaries of employees more than two to three times by creating a special fund.

"I see that today the normal average wage is about UAH 40,000. That is, we must understand that people who are in the port are in constant contact with business. And much depends on their decisions – transparent or non-transparent. That is, a person should be well fed, having no doubt that tomorrow he will receive a state-guaranteed wage, he will be able to feed himself and his family. After consultations with the market, I have information about this level of payment," said head of the Administration of the State Service of Maritime and River Transport Vitaliy Kindrativ in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

According to him, the average salary in the State Service of Maritime and River Transport today is UAH 14,000, at the rate of UAH 11,000 in the regions, and UAH 18,000 in the central office.

"This is a mockery. It does not allow us to either hire normal people, or pay decent money to normal people who are still in our ranks," the head of the service emphasizes.

The Service, together with the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, have worked out the corruption risks that may exist in the Maritime Administration and are now planning to go as far as possible into regulations and procedures in order to minimize the human factor in making any decisions. "On the one hand, decent wages, on the other, control and zero tolerance for corruption. I think that thanks to such tools, we will be able to honestly and publicly declare in a very short period that we are an organization with zero corruption," Kindrativ said.

He also noted that there is a so-called "administrative fee" in the world, which is paid by ships and is aimed at ensuring the work of the Maritime Administration. "In Ukraine, this ‘administrative fee’ goes directly to the budget. And now we are working on amendments to the law in order to make a special fund for the maintenance of the Maritime Administration, which will be filled from this ‘administrative fee’… And when we create a special fund, we will be able to raise wages, attract good specialists and reduce corruption risks," the head of the Maritime Administration said.

According to him, in Ukraine the amount of this fee depends on the number of ship calls and varies from UAH 170 million to UAH 190 million.