Finnish Maritime Administration head denies wrongdoing over boat hire

Director-General Mylly says he paid valid rent for Nauticat 33 vessel in 2004

Markku Mylly

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The Ministry of Transport and Communications will make a decision next week whether or not it is to take any action relating to the private use of towage company Alfons Håkans Oy’s Nauticat 33 motor sailer.
      Both Markku Mylly, the Director-General of the Finnish Maritime Administration (FMA), and the Finnish State Pilotage Enterprise (Finnpilot) have delivered their reports on the matter.
     
Mylly estimates that the weekly rent of EUR 500 which he paid for Alfons Håkans’s motorsailer Anneli was equal to the normal going rate.
      A receipt of the payment is available.
      The Director-General says that he used the vessel for a cruise on Lake Saimaa at Midsummer in 2004, wanting to get familiar with the area where he had long planned to buy a summer cottage.
     
While acknowledging that he does not know the 2004 tariffs for boat rentals, Mylly reports that currently the weekly rents asked for vessels of the same size are approximately EUR 870 to 1,495.
      Slightly smaller boats are available at EUR 335 to 685 a week.
      Mylly remarks that typically all rental boats are new and well equipped, while Håkans’s Anneli was already 22 years old and well-worn at the time he rented it. Hence the EUR 500 weekly rent was fully comparable to the amount paid for similar rental vessels.
     
According to the report delivered by the Finnish State Pilotage Enterprise, Jouni Kokkonen, the Operational Director of Finnpilot, used the same vessel in 2002.
      At that point Kokkonen was in charge of the Inland Waterways Division of FMA’s Traffic Department, having received a three-day cruise as a wedding present from Alfons Håkans Oy.
      Since the beginning of 2004, when the pilotage unit of the Finnish Maritime Administration has operated independently under the name of State Pilotage Enterprise, none of Finnpilot’s executives have used Anneli nor any other boat, the report indicated.
      Assistant Harbour Master Kai Sarpaneva was also among the users of motorsailer Anneli. Sarpaneva is in charge of icebreaking services at the Port of Helsinki.
      The City of Helsinki has submitted a request for an inquiry by the police, while the City Board has taken back the icebreaking contract between the Port of Helsinki and Alfons Håkans Oy for reconsideration.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Court of Appeal convicts Maritime Administration officials; prison sentences suspended (1.9.2003)
  Maritime executives´ cruise on Lake Saimaa is to lead to police investigation (30.10.2007)

Links:
  Port of Helsinki
  Finnish Maritime Administration
  Finnish State Pilotage Enterprise

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