[Peetwo]

Comedy relief Tuesday, 18th August, 2015; see you there.

Boys, I got here early to reserve the front row Houseboat seats for some distinguished V.I.P's. Everything is in order however I forgot to bring the ASA mock cardboard cutouts and the Jaffa's. Could you please bring them with you?

Regards
Gobbles

Dick to give evidence

Overnight that 'man is back' again and maybe, just maybe there is more to this than horse pooh & giggles...

Airservices project under scrutiny in Senate  

• by: EAN HIGGINS
  
• From: The Australian
  
• August 18, 2015 12:00AM
  

Reporter
Sydney

A Senate committee is today ­expected to investigate the ­administration of an ­Airservices Australia project integrating the nation’s civilian and military air traffic control systems, along with performance bonuses paid to executives.  

The move comes amid claims of big payments to consultants for the OneSKY program, originally costed by industry sources at $600 million but for which neither the government nor Airservices will disclose a current figure.

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss whose transport portfolio covers aviation, Airservices, and the consultants concerned declined to comment yesterday.

The Senate committee has called the executives of Airservices to a public hearing today to answer a range of questions about financial management of the government-owned organisation which runs the country’s air traffic control system, and airport fire and rescue services.

Committee chairman Liberal Bill Heffernan and deputy chairman Labor’s Glenn Sterle originally called the hearing after revelations in The Australian in June showed the executives ­received bonuses of up to $100,000 each, which were paid in a financial year when profits halved, return on equity targets were not met, air safety benchmarks deteriorated and workplace diversity went backwards.

Late last year the committee grilled then Airservices chief executive Margaret Staib about why she did not report to police an alleged credit card fraud by a manager, and over her organisation’s failure to canvass capital works proposals with ­another Senate committee as ­required before commissioning them.

Ms Staib told the committee she had taken steps to deal with the capital works reporting issue, and later wrote saying she had received legal advice that it was within her discretion to not ­report the ­alleged credit card fraud, which she said turned out to be not as large as she had first indicated.

Ms Staib ­resigned this month, citing health reasons, and will not appear before the committee. The committee is also still interested in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of corporate credit card spending by top officials.

In what is likely to be a lively hearing, businessman and ­aviator Dick Smith will give ­evidence on the financial ­pressures in the general aviation ­industry and the nation’s air ­traffic control system.

The OneSKY program, to be implemented between 2018-21, envisages 200 radar consoles ­operated by civilian and RAAF controllers displaying the same information in real time.

Mr Smith has said the program would be a waste of money until the introduction of an airspace system along the lines of that in the US where commercial aircraft were always directed by air traffic controllers.

A spokesman for Mr Truss said the government fully backed OneSKY as a program which would ultimately save “several hundred million ­dollars”, and was “satisfied that the ongoing negotiation and ­acquisition of OneSKY are being managed appropriately”.

  
For the amended agenda & Dick Smith's submission etc. see here - Performance of ASA - take two. 

MTF...P2