OREANDA-NEWS. August 01, 2014. State-owned Port of Tallinn has announced a competition for the CEO spot, and for a board member, a day after another state giant, Eesti Energia, said it was looking for candidates to lead its company.

Ain Kaljurand, the current CEO of the Port of Tallinn, has been in the firing line before, when his job was subject to a dispute between IRL and the Reform Party, then-government coalition members.

Three years ago the supervisory board chairman Neinar Seli, now only a member of the Supervisory Board, blocked the move. Seli himself has received heat as he supported the company's sponsorship policies, while also being the chairman of the nation's Olympic committee.

The company also came under fire in 2012 for work that was being done on the Port of Muuga, saying that the company had caused 2.4 million euros in losses to the state by exceeding its budget in the construction of a quay for the container terminal in Muuga Harbor. That work has now been completed.

The Port of Tallinn announced Tuesday it had seen record traffic and profits at its port facilites in the first six months of the year. The company said it had experienced a 16 percent rise in profits and a 7 percent increase in turnover in that period, and a 5 percent growth in passenger traffic.

 Requirements for the top job at the company are a little less stringent compared to Eesti Energia, with only five years experience asked for as the head of a large organization, instead of six for the energy giant, and a higher education degree, not a MBA.