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GlenB embuggerance update - 6/08/20:

FORMAL SUBMISSION OF ALLEGATIONS THAT CASA EXECUTIVE MANAGER- LEGAL INTERNATIONAL AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS, Mr. JONATAHAN ALECK IS DELIBERATELY MISLEADING THE COMMONWEALTH OMBUDSMAN OFFICE TO MANIPULATE THE INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION AND PERVERT THE OUTCOME OF THAT INVESTIGATION


Submitted 06/08/20

Dear Mr. XXXXXXX XXXX, Assistant Director of Investigations, Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

Thank you for your continuing work into my complaint regarding CASAs' conduct and decisions.

My interpretation of Phase One of your investigation indicates that your concluded view is that there was an administrative deficiency. Obviously, I concur with that finding and respect the diligence with which you have attended to a difficult and complicated matter.

I note that Phase Two of your investigation continues and that it will extend over a protracted period, and I appreciate the resources that are being allocated to this project.

As part of that continuing investigation, I do request that you consider this correspondence.

Mr. Jonathan Aleck acts in the role of the CASA Executive Manager of Legal, International Regulatory Affairs, and is the accountable person in CASA and the person that drove the CASA actions and decisions against me and my business. He chose to target me specifically.

It is my assertion that Mr. Aleck is deliberately misleading your office in its continuing investigation. I have attempted to resolve this matter with the CASA Board by requesting the opportunity to meet with them and put my allegations to them. The CASA Board has flatly refused to meet with me, either in person or by a video conference. I have also written to the Deputy PM, Mr. Michael McCormack but my correspondence continues to be completely ignored despite my requests for an acknowledgment of receipt.

My intent was to provide the CASA Board with the opportunity to meet their obligations to ensure good governance, improve aviation safety, and to promote the Australian owned sector of the industry. For that reason, I would like to raise those allegations with you, provide supporting information on those substantive claims, and make myself available to provide further information should you deem it appropriate.

Important background information

At no stage did I submit an application for a new AOC application. I had an existing business that had been operating with an industry-leading level of safety and compliance since its inception in 2006. For clarity, it was not a new application, it was a well-established business with an impeccable reputation, and CASA records will support that contention.

The CASA action came without any prior warning at all, and no CASA actions were based on any safety issues at all, and there were no regulatory breaches. I am fully satisfied that the CASA actions were motivated by my public criticism of CASAs failed Regulatory program referred to as Part 61/141 and 142. My criticism was based on the fact that CASA spent hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, and the result was the enormous negative impact on many Australian owned businesses, with no safety benefit. CASA themselves have made that admission. I made a number of predictions about the regulatory impact. The passage of time vindicated my public comments in the media and that was most likely the motivation for the CASA actions i.e. they were vindictive and vexatious.

The Aviation Ruling regarding Franchised AOCs did not apply to the flight training industry and was never intended to be applied to the flight training industry. It was written for the Charter Industry and specifically the carriage of freight. This was clearly articulated to the flight training industry by CASA, by way of a series of face to face briefings by CASA personnel on its release in 2006. My organization received that briefing from CASA personnel in early 2006, and that is the clear recollection of many flight training organizations who have contacted me and validated that comment.

The truth is that the Aviation Ruling was introduced when a Melbourne based charter company was closed down by CASA and they resumed operations the next day under another AOC. As previously stated, the Aviation Ruling was never intended for the flight training industry.

The truth is that after the introduction of the Aviation Ruling, CASA continued facilitating many flight training organizations to operate under a franchised AOC system. There is ample evidence of that assertion. A company called XXXX operated under my AOC for an extended period of time.

The truth is that the XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXX XXXX had been operating under a franchised AOC system with XXXXXXX until the day before they joined APTA. It was the application to add XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXX XXXX to APTA that resulted in the complete reversal of CASA "opinion"

CASA executive Manager of Regulatory Services and Surveillance, Mr. Craig Martin was previously the CASA Regional Manager of the Eastern Region encompassing Queensland, and this practice was particularly prevalent in his own region. i.e. flying schools operating under a franchised AOC system. Mr. Craig Martin could be contacted by your office and will be unable to truthfully refute that claim.

My business at the time, APTA was in fact the first time in Australia that an organization had acted with good intent to improve safety and compliance of the franchised AOC system that had deficiencies and weaknesses that had been accepted by CASA. The truth is that CASA worked side by side with me for two years and was assessed by CASA on over 600 individual requirements, to build this safer and more robust system. i.e. APTA was designed for no other reason than to attend to the existing deficiencies in the accepted practice of franchised AOCs.

Specific Allegations against Mr. Jonathan Aleck

Mr. Aleck was fully aware that the use of franchised AOCs was accepted practice in the flight training industry, and CASA had fully sanctioned those arrangements.

Mr. Aleck applied his opinion to my business only, and chose not to apply it to other operators that were operating under a "franchised AOC."

Mr. Aleck was fully aware that I had worked with CASA for two years and invested many hundreds of thousands of dollars in achieving a safe, compliant, and well-intentioned system that was designed to attend to deficiencies in franchised AOCs.

Mr. Aleck is fully aware that in fact, APTA had the largest and most highly resourced safety department of any flying school in Australia.

Mr. Aleck is fully aware that his decisions and actions were not based on concerns regarding aviation safety.

Mr. Aleck is fully aware that there were no regulatory breaches.

Mr. Aleck is fully aware that audit results were fabricated and written up many months after an audit was conducted, and that those audit results differed entirely to the audit findings provided at the CASA mandated on-site audit exit meeting.

Mr. Aleck is fully aware that when I challenged those fabricated audit findings, CASA was unable to provide any supporting evidence of those false allegations, because they were not truthful.

Mr. Aleck has been responsible for actions and decisions that are not in accordance with obligations placed on him my

• The Minister's Statement of Expectations
  
  
• The CASA Enforcement Manual
  
  
• Administrative Law, Natural Justice, and Procedural Fairness.
  
  
• CASAs Regulatory Philosophy
  

Mr. Aleck is responsible for providing information to your office that is clearly not truthful and is done for the purpose of protecting his position and supporting his decisions that are unlawful, unfair, and unjust.

Mr. Aleck has led your office to believe that my business/ concept was unique and failed to identify that I was specifically targeted whilst others were permitted to operate.

Summary

Mr. Aleck has initiated similar action against many individuals and businesses resulting in many people losing their businesses, their reputations, and their livelihoods. Many of those people have contacted me in the background and offered to submit their allegations if you deem that it would assist your ongoing investigation.

I reassert that I will provide any further information that you require to support my claims.

Can I also draw your attention to an opportunity that has been provided to me by the Australian Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), which is Australia's peak aviation body representing the aviation industry.

On Tuesday 11th August that Organisation will conduct a Facebook video conference on my matter at 7 PM. These attract a wide audience from Industry and are highly interactive. I will ensure that you are provided with a copy of that conference as it will highlight many of the challenges for the industry as a result of the way CASA chooses to conduct themselves, despite the obligations placed on them.

Respectfully and thankfully, Glen Buckley

And :

Dear Sir/Madam, 

I would like to make a Freedom of Information Request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

Could those documents if released be sent to via my return email address.

On Wednesday 5th August, I received the correspondence below from Mr. Colin McLachlan who is the Board Secretariat for the Board of CASA. 

This was in response to an email that I had sent to Ms. Donna Hardman who is a new member of the Board of CASA. 

I have previously raised substantial allegations against the conduct of Mr. Jonathan Aleck who acts in the role of CASA Executive Manager of Legal, International, and Regulatory Affairs. I am of the opinion that the Chairperson of the Board of CASA is deliberately frustrating my attempts to resolve this matter and may be complicit in thwarting my attempts to obtain a fair and transparent process. 

My correspondence was specifically addressed to Ms. Hardman and my reasonable expectation was that I would receive a response from her. 

I am concerned that either Mr. Anthony Mathews as the Chair of the CASA board or perhaps Mr. Aleck who the allegations were against, may have prepared that response on her behalf, and potentially without her consent or knowledge. 

I say that because it is unlikely that someone of Ms. Hardman's credentials would make a decision that limits her ability to ensure the good governance of CASA.

To satisfy myself that Mr. Mathews or Mr. Aleck are not acting inappropriately, I am making an FOI request. 

That request specifically relates to any correspondence between Ms. Donna Hardman, Mr. Anthony Mathews, Mr. Jonathan Aleck and Mr. Colin McLachlan that relate to that prepared response. 

It would not be the role of the Board Secretariat to prepare that response without guidance from those named parties. By obtaining those related emails it will clarify the intent of the CASA actions. It will also clarify whether Mr. Jonathan Aleck had any input which I feel would be entirely unreasonable and unethical.

Furthermore, I am trying to ascertain if it was indeed a combined Board response that was arrived at collaboratively or whether it was engineered by an individual who may gain from perverting the process. 

Should you deem that those documents cannot be released, may i request an automatic review of the decision. If that review will forfeit my rights to a review by the Australian Information Commissioner then do not proceed with the review, and i will approach the Australian Information Commissioner

Thank you for your consideration of my request, yours respectfully, Glen Buckley



The email from Mr Colin McLachlan is copied below.

"Dear Mr Buckley

 

I refer to your email message of 2 August 2020 addressed to Ms Donna Hardman, as a member of the CASA Board.

 

You have made very serious allegations about the conduct of a CASA Executive Manager, without particularising your claims, and without providing any factual basis on which those claims rest other than your own convictions.  You have asked for a meeting with Ms Hardman, with a view to an investigation you suggest the Board should conduct into your claims against Dr Aleck.

 

It is not intended that a meeting of the kind you have proposed with Ms Hardman should occur.  Nor, in the absence of any evidence to warrant such action, is it the Board’s intention to mount or recommend an investigation of the kind you suggest.

 

If you have objective evidence to substantiate any of your allegations against Dr Aleck, beyond the information you have previously provided and the opinions you have previously expressed, you are invited to provide that evidence, in writing, to CASA. 

 

In the absence of new, factually substantiated evidence supporting your claims, the Board has no intention of considering this matter further.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Colin McLachlan"

Addendum: Dear St Commode invitation - 

Dear Mr. Camody, 


I would like to extend an invitation to you in your role as the CEO of CASA. 

On Tuesday, August 11th at 7PM, AOPA has offered me the opportunity to present my concerns about CASA through a Facebook live conference. 

As you are aware CASA actions were never based on safety concerns, and there were no regulatory breaches. 

CASA initiated their action on the basis of the aviation ruling, and as you are now aware, the Commonwealth Ombudsman has completed Stage One of his investigation and those findings clearly support my contention that CASA acted inappropriately. 

As his investigation continues into Stage Two I am confident that those findings will further support my substantial allegations of gross misconduct. 

The welfare of my family and my own mental health has been significantly impacted by that gross misconduct. I have worked diligently to resolve this matter, but there is no doubt that some personnel in CASA have chosen to cover up this matter and protect their own misconduct.

The purpose of his email is to invite you to represent CASA and defend those actions. During the broadcast, I will make substantial allegations against CASA.

I would very much appreciate your involvement in that broadcast to ensure transparency of the process. 

Could you please advise if you would be willing to participate in that conference to ensure that CASA has the opportunity to present their side of the case. 

I look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will avail yourself of the opportunity.

Respectfully, Glen Buckley