[Peetwo]

The case for:

Privatisation of ASA ala Canada makes so much sense, (a) it works and (b) it takes all the ‘troughery’ (well, most of it) out of the equation.  The TAAAF and AOPA suggestions have much fiscal merit and the government gets rid of much potential for great embarrassment.

Remember that Clark fellah in Estimates, condescending, smooth talking, arrogant twat; sat there and said “we run a billion dollars business”. Etc.  Lying hound, they were gifted a monopoly and it was air services money paying for all the extensive, expensive business’ and ‘training’ jollies to Las Vegas and Paris.  

I find it hard to see how any responsible government can allow things to continue on as they are; the warnings are writ large.  ‘The words of the prophet are written on the dunny walls’ and after the resounding noise of metal meeting metal at speed and stench of melting flesh will the sounds of silence reverberate around a shocked world?

I’ll reiterate – if Civil Air are expressing concern, then something needs to be done by government, before the association decides to act for them.  Rolling strikes perhaps, not for pay increases; but for the safety of the travelling public.

Raiders of the OneSKY trough: cont/-

The ASA session at Estimates lasted less than 2 minutes, so is not worth regurgitating. However I did notice that the Hooded one was absent and now I think I know why..  

Hoodlum to take over from Beaker -

Well here's a turn up for the books, from Binger courtesy of the Oz:

New ATSB chief Greg Hood faces tough choice

The federal government has appointed former Airservices executive Greg Hood to replace Martin Dolan as the head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.


The appointment will be announced today by Minister for ­Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester, who will grant Mr Hood a five-year term, starting from July 1, 2016, as the chief commissioner of the ATSB.

Mr Hood will replace Mr Dolan, who has been in the media spotlight for the past two years as the head of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

As one of his first duties, Mr Hood will have to make the difficult decision whether or not to continue the search for the missing aircraft.

“They way I see it, there is still 15,000sq km to go and it would be remiss of us not to continue being hopeful until that area is searched,” Mr Hood told The Australian.

“MH370 and what transpires with the search will be my biggest immediate challenge.

“But any decision to extend, expand or curtail the search will be a very delicate decision to be taken in conjunction with the Australian, Malaysian and Chinese governments.”

In 18 months of searching, submersible vessels equipped with cutting-edge sonar equipment have not been able find any trace of the Boeing 777, which was on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers when it disappeared on March 8, 2014.

The search — which has cost Australian taxpayers about $90 million — is expected to cease by the end of June if no fresh evidence is found.

Mr Hood has more than 30 years’ experience in the transport sector, most recently as executive general manager of Air Traffic Control at Airservices Australia.

He previously held several senior management positions in the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASE) including executive manager of the Operations Division.

“This appointment will enable the ATSB to continue to perform its vital role as the national transport safety investigator to the high standards expected by Australians,” Mr Chester said.

    
Still absorbing the implications of this appointment, 1st take is that this is actually a very good thing. One thing Hoody definitely knows is where all the shelf-wared skeletons of PelAir cover-up & Airtex/Skymaster (Canleyvale tragedy) are buried...

Time will tell whether he can return 'Reason' & credibility to the ATSB but he definitely is not a Muppet like Dolan with NFI...   

Given the serious implications highlighted by the SMH article - Sydney Airport plane tracking system regularly failing, workers fear for passenger safety - and the Ferryman posts that followed, perhaps Hoody has picked a good time to jump ship... 

Don't mention the "T" word -

Meanwhile Harfwit is still preaching "nothing to see here..move along", courtesy Binger from the Oz:

Airservices defends consultancy payments

• Mitchell Bingemann
  
• The Australian
  
• May 6, 2016 12:00AM
  

The chief executive of Airservices Australia has defended the awarding of millions of dollars in contracts to an obscure Canberra-based consultancy firm, saying it was “value for money” and that the imminent release of a government investigation into the awarding of those deals will find nothing wrong.

The Australian National Audit Office late last year launched an investigation into consultancy contracts awarded to the International Centre for Complex Project Management for Airservices’ $1.5 billion OneSKY air traffic control and navigation project, which will integrate military and civilian airspace management by 2021.

The probe was launched after a Senate rural and regional affairs and transport legislation committee said Airservices’ dealings with ICCPM carried possible conflicts of interest.

The Senate committee was told how a “husband and wife team” had been on opposite sides of a contract transaction between Airservices and ICCPM over One­SKY. It also heard that former RAAF officer and chairman of ICCPM, Harry Bradford, had received $1 million to act as lead negotiator on Airservices’ behalf in its dealings with Thales — the international aerospace company that has the lead contract for OneSKY — when the chairman of ICCPM at the time, Chris Jenkins, was Thales managing director.

In its investigation — the results of which are to be released this month — the audit office has looked at whether Airservices has “effective procurement arrangements” in place, with a particular emphasis on whether consultancy contracts entered into with ICCPM were “effectively administered”.

But Airservices chief Jason Harfield has spoken out ahead of the ANAO’s imminent release of its findings, saying that while processes could have been better executed, no wrongdoing was committed by the organisation.

“Could we have done things better or in a different way? Yes, we could have done this better but no one has done anything wrong, and this was about an organisation wanting to make sure it could deliver on what it has promised,” Mr Harfield told The Australian.
Mr Harfield said it was necessary to engage ICCPM’s Mr Bradford as a negotiator because he carried expertise that spanned across both the civilian aviation and air force sectors. He said the $1m paid to Mr Bradford for his consultancy services “absolutely” represented value for money.

“This is not something we do every day and the size and complexity of the negotiation and the fact you are bringing in not only Defence and Airservices together but the supplier too. When we were originally looking for a lead negotiator, we looked at the cost of going to the big four — KPMG or PwC — and the rate that we were going to get (from Mr Bradford) was less than what we would have had to pay there,” he said. “When you think that this is a $1.5bn program over 25 years and to invest $1m on someone to help negotiate the contract, it’s money well spent. Yes you can sit there and say this price tag is big, but the value for money from our opinion is very much there for where we have got to and where we are going.”

An internal review of Airservices’ dealings with ICCPM found that while there were no actual conflicts of interest, there were flaws in the company’s handling of the contract arrangements that could lead to a “perceived” conflict of interest. “We could have in hindsight managed the contractual arrangements better with ICCPM so we have made changes,” Mr Harfield said.

“We still have a relationship with ICCPM but it’s in a very different form to how it was previously to make sure those perceptions are better managed. We are now contracting direct with individuals instead of going through ICCPM and we are making sure that the protocols around that are much more transparent.”

Mr Harfield said Airservices engaged ICCPM to negotiate on its behalf as it did not have the expertise necessary to close the $1.5bn OneSKY contract.

Airservices and the Department of Defence have handed over about $8m in consultancy fees to ICCPM since it was engaged in 2010.

“We were always going to ask for assistance and help. We have a history of not being able to do this right with simple projects. So we asked for assistance as it’s not the capability that we have in the organisation,” Mr Harfield said.

“The one thing I want to make clear is the positions and ICCPM and their contribution were in most cases and in particular the roles that have been mentioned in The Australian were joint decisions by Defence and Airservices and a lot of those were paid a portion by Defence as well as Airservices.”

  
Hmm...funny how Thales only gets one passing mention...



MTF...P2