KIEV, Nov. 17 - The office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hit back on Thursday at claims by former regional governor Mikheil Saakashvili that Poroshenko had allowed corruption to flourish, saying Saakashvili had failed to deliver change while in office.

Speaking to Reuters a week after resigning as a governor, Saakashvili, a former Georgian president who went on to have a second political career in Ukraine, had said Poroshenko either abetted or turned a blind eye to corruption.

In the first detailed rebuttal by a representative of Poroshenko since Saakashvili quit, Vitaliy Kovalchuk, the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration, told Reuters Saakashvili was a better politician than a manager.

Despite being given more power than any previous governor in Ukraine, and allowed to appoint his own people to key positions, Saakashvili had failed to bring corrupt people to book or deliver tangible reform in the customs service, Kovalchuk said.

"We may say that Mikheil Saakashvili did not manage to cope with his powers," Kovalchuk told Reuters in an emailed statement.

"Believe me, no one in the presidential administration is happy about it. I regret that Mikheil Saakashvili turned out to be a far better politician than a manager."

Saakashvili was appointed governor of the Odessa region in 2015 by Poroshenko - Kiev's pro-Western leader who pledged to transform Ukraine after the Maidan street protests, partly fueled by anger over official corruption, led to the overthrow of the previous administration.

But for some in the country, dreams of radical change are fading; a report by Transparency International on Wednesday found nearly three-quarters of Ukrainians do not think there has been a reduction in corruption under Poroshenko, compared with under the former president, Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych.

"Poroshenko wanted until now to appear nice in front of the West, that he is doing something, without really doing anything," Saakashvili said. "Imitating change without really having any real substantial change."

Poroshenko and others in the government "have lost all taste for reforms", Saakashvili said in an interview.

"Real change and reform really means also decreasing the leverage for stealing, for plundering, pillaging Ukrainian wealth and for the cronies of the president and the others to basically increase their wealth," he said.

"First they refused to help us when they could, and then they actually started to sabotage us."

When Saakashvili quit on Nov. 7 he said he planned to create a new Ukrainian political force without links to big business or established political factions, and that he would pressure the government for snap elections. (rt/ez)