Airstrips, navigational aids, security, search and rescue capacity all deficient …Mekdeci
The privately-run aviation sector is so concerned about what it says is the lack of qualifications and competence of the serving Flight Inspector at the Guyana Civil Aviation Autho-rity (GCAA) that it offered some months ago to meet the salary costs of a qualified replacement. However, the authorities are yet to res-pond to the offer, according to Project Mana-ger of Ogle Airport Inc Anthony Mekdeci.
The disclosure by Mekdeci was made against the backdrop of the ongoing controversy that has arisen in the aviation industry over the insistence by private aviators that the functionary currently serving in the position of Flight Inspector compromises the safety of the aviation sector.
Mekdeci told Stabroek Business that the offer to pay the salary of a qualified Flight Inspector has been “on the table” since November last year when representatives of the industry met with Transport Minister Robeson Benn. He said that the offer to provide the funds for the salary payments had been made after the Minister had told them that government was not able to meet the salary of a highly qualified person.
Mekdeci, who served as the country’s Director of Civil Aviation from 1981 to 1996 said that the aviation industry was prepared to hand over the money to government to meet the salary payment as soon as a qualified person was identified to do the job.
Asked whether government had responded to the offer from the aviation sector Mekdeci would only say that while the offer remained on the table the issue had not surfaced again since the November meeting.
Controversy between government and private aviators over the suitability of the serving Flight Inspector has ruptured what Mekdeci described as “a traditionally excellent working relationship.” He said that the offer to fund the salary of a Flight Inspector had been made against the backdrop of the industry’s recognition of the importance of a competent Flight Inspector.
But the controversy over the incumbent Flight Inspector appears to be only one of several long-standing issues between the state aviation authorities and the aviation industry. During the interview Mekdeci told Stabroek Business that among the industry’s other concerns were the failure by the authorities to take sufficient advantage of skills available in the private aviation sector that could support the skills-deficient GCAA in the execution of its duties.
While Mekdeci was at pains to play down the current Flight Inspector controversy he conceded that over several years and despite “excellent communication” between the industry and successive Transport Ministers a great deal remained to be accomplished by government to enhance standards in the local aviation sector. He identified poor quality airstrips, inadequate navigational aids, a seriously deficient search and rescue capacity and inadequate security, particularly at interior airstrips, as being among the more serious problems facing the aviation industry.
Mekdeci told Stabroek that only around 70 of approximately 200 airstrips across the country were in use at this time and that many of those that are currently in use are in need of repairs. Additionally, he noted that fourteen navigational aids at interior airstrips were no longer in place since a retrenchment exercise and the withdrawal of staff and equipment under the previous administration.
According to Mekdeci the industry was also concerned over the absence of adequate security at most of the country’s interior airstrips. He noted that there had been two aircraft hijackings and the as yet unexplained disappearance of a local aircraft over the past ten years and that these incidents had resulted in no real improvement in security in the sector.
The former Director of the GCAA told this newspaper that another of the industry’s serious concerns was with what he described as the absence of a local search and rescue capability. “While Guyana is a signatory to several international search and rescue conventions we are in serious breach of those conventions,” Mekdeci said.
Kit Nascimento Head of of Public Commu-nication Consultants Ltd which handles public relations for the private aviation sector told Stabroek Business that while search and rescue was substantively the responsibility of the Guyana Defence Force, the military’s capability to perform those functions had been eroded over the years as a result of depreciation in its equipment resulting from the decision to use its aircraft for commercial flights. Nascimento disclosed that the private aviation sector had been pressed into service in the wake of last month’s killings at Bartica since the army’s pilots had been assigned to fly commercial flights to Kaieteur Falls the previous day.
Mekdeci told Stabroek Business that the aviation sector had been instrumental in identifying an expert who had undertaken a search and rescue survey and needs assessment during the tenure of the previous Transport Minister. He disclosed that the requirements for a reliable search and rescue capacity included both helicopters and ground forces, and that the report of the search and rescue survey and needs assessment exercise, was currently with the serving Minister of Transport.
