[Peetwo]

McDonaught Aviation Shamelist cont/-  

Via the BITN thread:

ANAO confirm ASA and Dept take the piss on Govt oversight -    

It's now official that the aviation safety bureaucracy, in particular Harfwit's ASA, totally ignore and/or obfuscate all accountability through Government (ANAO)/Parliamentary inquiry and audit findings/recommendations. Today the ANAO (office of the proverbial wet lettuce) released their "Implementation of ANAO and Parliamentary Committee Recommendations" audit report in which Airservices Australia and the Department of Infrastructure etc. were included audited entities: ref - https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance...tions-2019

 

A couple of disturbing ASA audit report quotes:

   

Did the entities develop an implementation plan?

The selected entities did not develop clear implementation plans for all recommendations.

3.1 Successful implementation of audit recommendations requires implementation planning to set clear responsibilities and timeframes for addressing the required action. Implementation planning should involve key stakeholders, including the internal audit function.

3.2 Airservices Australia (Airservices) agreed to the six recommendations arising from Auditor-General Report No.1 2016–17 Procurement of the International Centre for Complex Project Management to Assist on the OneSKY Australia Program (the ICCPM audit). Airservices advised the ANAO that, as the entity was working to quickly address the recommendations, implementation plans were not developed to monitor the progress of agreed actions. Rather, Airservices relied on a table of initiatives to assess progress, provide status updates, and describe planned actions to address the recommendations. Airservices has acknowledged that affecting cultural change within the organisation will take time. The evidence reviewed by the ANAO indicates that, as at May 2019, actions against the ICCPM audit recommendations, particularly against recommendation one, remain ongoing.

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Did entities maintain evidence to confirm the implementation of ANAO recommendations?

Entities did not maintain sufficient and appropriate evidence to clearly demonstrate that all recommendations have been implemented.

3.7 Airservices agreed to the six recommendations arising from the ICCPM audit. In October 2016, the Chair of Airservices’ Board advised the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport that all ANAO recommendations had been addressed by 30 September 2016. Further, Airservices’ 2016–17 Annual Report stated that implementation of all six recommendations was completed by 30 September 2016.46

3.8 Airservices provided evidence of a range of actions taken in response to the recommendations, many of which remain ongoing at May 2019. Further, Airservices has undertaken a number of internal audits and reviews which highlight that weaknesses remain in Airservices’ procurement policies and procedures which has impacted on the achievement of the agreed culture shift.

3.9 As Airservices did not develop implementation plans to respond to the recommendations, there is no evidence of intended outcomes, including benchmarks and targets or robust measures to assess progress achieved. As such, Airservices has not been able to evaluate its performance against the implementation of the recommendations or identify when the intended result has been achieved.

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3.14 Overall, Airservices’ reporting of the recommendations as completed by 30 September 2016 more accurately reflected the commencement of actions to address the recommendations, rather than the intended outcomes being achieved and therefore the completion of implementation. While action has occurred against each of the recommendations, Airservices has only partially or not fully implemented the recommendations from the ICCPM audit. Refer to Table 3.4 for further detail.

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Recommendation no.1

3.17 Entities finalise implementation of 2016–17 ANAO performance audit recommendations. Specifically:

1. Airservices complete implementation of the recommendations from Auditor-General Report No.1 2016–17 Procurement of the International Centre for Complex Project Management to Assist on the OneSKY Australia Program;
   

Airservices Australia response: Disagreed.  - WTF?  

Harfwit oversees a toxic culture at ASA -   

Via the SMH:

Top stories



Morale disappeared off the radar, new Airservices review shows

Sydney Morning Herald·13 hours ago



'Putrid': Sex discrimination in air traffic control could endanger lives, says report

Sydney Morning Herald·1 day ago

And from Oz Aviation :

AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA SETS UP INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF ITS WORKPLACE CULTURE

written by Australianaviation.Com.Au August 6, 2019



Airservices Australia says it will set up an independent review of its workplace culture after a survey of its air traffic controllers found claims of bullying and sexual harassment.

The country’s air traffic manager said former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick would conduct the “broad and independent review” of its workforce culture.

“We will share the findings of this review and any recommendations will be adopted to ensure that Airservices offers a safe, diverse and inclusive workplace for all of our employees,” Airservices said in a statement on Tuesday.

Airservices was responding to the publication of a report prepared by former Federal Court judge Anthony North, which included responses from a survey of about 500 Airservices employees in January.

The survey, conducted by YouGov Galaxy and commissioned by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers for air traffic controllers’ union Civil Air Operations Officers’ Association, found half of all respondents – and three quarters of female respondents – said that they had experienced bullying, discrimination or sexual harassment while working at Airservices.

“It is evident that bullying, discrimination, and sexual harassment are features of the experience of many employees of Airservices and that they are not confident that management condemns the behaviour and acts effectively to prevent or stop it,” North said in the report, according to a joint statement from Civil Air and Maurice Blackburn on Tuesday.

“The fact that such behaviour has been documented as occurring over many years and at various Airservices worksites allows for the conclusion that bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment is part of the way things are done at Airservices, that they are part of its culture, and that they are not isolated or aberrant occurrences.”

“Of particular concern in the air navigation control environment, in which Airservices operates, is the potential for the poor workplace culture to have effects which compromise the safety of aircraft and passengers.”

Airservices said it rejected the suggestion in the report that its workplace culture was negatively affecting safety.

Instead, the government-owned corporation said its safety performance was “demonstrably among the best in the world and always improving”.

“There is no factual basis for these false and alarmist claims. When our safety performance is compared against our peers, we compare exceptionally well,” Airservices said.

Airservices said its annual employee engagement surveys had found “some areas of our workforce are concerned about workplace behaviours and how effectively they are managed when they arise”.

“We have been working with our people to address this, and have initiated some key improvement actions; most importantly enhancing essential people leadership skills in our highly specialised operational workforce,” Airservices said.

Civil Air Operations Officers’ Association executive secretary Peter McGuane called on federal government to “urgently step up” commence a full and independent enquiry.

“Employees lives are being ruined by the culture of bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment that Airservices have allowed, and the government must intervene stop this,” McGuane said.

“This employer has known about this culture for many years but it still refuses to change.”

Hmm...not a good look for the miniscule, yet another festering turd for the growing McDonaught aviation safety shame list...  

In addition... 

Catch Up or Ketchup?

One of the worst things that can happen, in almost any field of endeavour is falling behind. The further behind one gets, the harder it is to catch up, much more energy and will power is required and, having expended that energy, getting ahead becomes a very real challenge. It takes a while and some thinking to fully grasp the implications for the Australian 'catchup' emanating from the excellent report into the Air Nuigini 'accident'. (?)

In less than a twelve month, the PNG AIC managed to produce not only a first class analysis, but recommendations which not only have merit, but will stick. Flying operations in PNG are not without risk; almost everyone concerned there has an elevated awareness of ‘real’ risk in ‘real’ time and have a vested interest in finding out what happened, why and how best to fix it to prevent a reoccurrence. There are no faery tales of ‘safety’ told in PNG, no spin to mislead the public into believing that the local CAA is a god like being which, through a myriad of complex rules can sit back and say you are safe. Not in PNG, they understand that terrain, weather, aircraft and pilot can combine in an accident – any tick of the clock – and they do what they may to prevent reality happening, with limited resources and going the extra mile, without fear or influence. They shame Australia.

Despite the spin, bullshit, resources, unlimited power; and, not to mention the minister on a string, Australia has an impressive list of unfinished fatal reports, an even longer list of unpublished recommendations, and a marked reluctance to complete any of the above within a reasonable time frame. If an emerging nation like PNG with limited everything can do a complex, world class report within ten months, why are we in Australia still waiting for results? It also begs the question why did we waste so much time and effort to hold not only a Senate inquiry, but an independent report and an international examination; which, combined produced almost 100 recommendations, to no effective change whatsoever?

P2 - It is also disturbing that despite there being a 2nd inquiry and report by the ATSB into the PelAir VH-NGA ditching that there was no observations/findings in regards to Pacific Island air services agreements etc. like the PNG AIC has been able to do, without fear nor favour, inside of 10 months to an excellent full report...

A good question for the opposition to ask the incumbent Muppet, masquerading as minister methinks.

Perhaps ask why there is such a delay on the final report into the Ross Air fatal for example; another ‘training’ based event which proved lethal. Many would like to hear the ‘official’ ministerial response to that event; or, of any of the serious events which are neatly stacked up in the waiting room, awaiting their final, properly edited turn to be of no practical value.  

How’s this for a response to an enquiry – two years (and counting) down the track of the Ross Air investigation (another sim v aircraft training accident).

ATSB - "The investigation is progressing well, however, the analysis phase is proving to be a complex process due in part to the lack of recorded data from the flight. As a result we now expect to provide you with a copy of the draft report in the 4th quarter of this year. Sincere apologies for the delay however this investigation remains a high priority for the ATSB and the team are working tirelessly to complete the investigation as soon as possible."

Here is one response:-

Anon – “but not too busy to try making ATSB keep up with their promise of monthly updates. What utter tosh! Here is a copy of the latest 'update'. As you can see he insults my intelligence by telling me the investigation is progressing well and they are working tirelessly!!! Can you believe the audacity???”

I, for one can, so can many others. Australian aviation ‘safety’ is rapidly becoming little more than a PR exercise for government ministers who just don’t want to address the rapidly growing elephant in the room. Perhaps someone could whisper into the ministerial ear the real opinion of his international peers regarding the pitiful, deceitful state Australian aviation governance has descended into.  Volunteers? No. I wonder why not.

Toot – toot.

Cue the 60 minutes clock...tick..tick..tick..etc

 

MTF...P2