KATHMANDU, DEC 31 -
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal ( CAAN ) has amended its Civil Aviation Regulation 2002, designating full autonomy to the director general to regulate and enforce air safety and security measures.
The CAAN has also introduced a new Human Resource (HR) policy that allows it to recruit experienced individuals for regulatory purposes at industry standard salaries.
The lack of full power with the CAAN chief and shortage of qualified manpower were identified as the major reasons for Nepal’s dismal performance in an audit by the UN’s aviation watchdog.
The regulation was amended through a minister-level decision on Sunday, while the HR policy was endorsed by the CAAN board two weeks ago, officials said.
The amendment in the regulation will reduce the Civil Aviation Ministry’s “influence” in the sector to some extent.
The CAAN officials said the amendment has made it clear on more than 13 clauses that the director general can impose his power to ensure safety and security of airlines, airports and passengers.
The director general will have full power in areas like air safety, airspace regulation, setting aviation standards, licensing of airlines, pilots, engineers, air traffic controllers.
The CAAN head also will have the power to seek financial and other information from airlines, and conduct investigations, issue directions, seize and punish operators if they fail to comply with its orders or directions.
“The responsibility of the director general was in the civil aviation regulation before, but the regulation was not clear on the exact role,” said Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, director general of the CAAN . “The amendment has now cleared all hurdles.”
For example, in the event of a safety violation, the director general can now immediately take legal action against the wrongdoers.
The regulation amendment was part of the concerns raised by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) audit in 2009 under the primary legislations—one of the eight critical elements which ICAO considers are essential for a country to have effective air safety.
The HR policy, which is part of the ICAO’s third critical element—organisation—is implemented by a state to address the deficiency on technical, financial, or human resources.
The HR policy will ensure larger presence of the CAAN at airports with enough financial and human resources to rigorously enforce safety and security.
“Through the policy, CAAN can appoint or recruit experts at market rates for use in regulatory purposes,” a senior CAAN official said.
For example, to be a flight operation inspector or instructor pilot at CAAN , one has to have at least 5,000 hours of flying experience and given the existing remuneration policy of CAAN , none of such experienced pilots are attracted to the post.
The nominal remuneration policy has always resulted to the lack of qualified manpower.
For example, Captain Prabhu Sharan Pathak, a senior instructor pilot who died in an Agni Air crash in Jomsom in May
2012 was actually an employee with the CAAN , but due to its nominal remuneration policy, Pathak was allowed to perform double duty—as a flight operation inspector at the regulatory body and as a Captain at a private airline—compromising all safety procedures.
The Agni Air crash report later pointed out that the Captain was flying under stress and was dissatisfied with his job.
“Now through the policy, CAAN can recruit qualified people at industry standard salaries, which it is expected to usher a major change in the inspection and certification procedures by the inspector,” the officials said. “The policy will also enable CAAN to invest freely to train manpower.”
Among the eight critical elements—primary aviation legislation, organization, licensing, operations, airworthiness, accident investigation, air navigation services and aerodromes—the ICAO audit has identified deficiencies in legislation, operations and organisation.
“Through the amendment to the regulation and implementation of the HR policy, we expect that the non-compliance rate with the eight areas audited by the ICAO will come down to the global average,” said Suman. “ CAAN is preparing to send its comments on the final draft of the audit that ICAO’s Coordinated Validation Missions (ICVM) conducted in July.”
As CAAN has been asked to provide its comments on the audit report by December 31, officials said a report of the progress made on this front will be sent to the ICAO headquarters before it makes its final assessment of the audit on Feb 1.
In 2009, Nepal’s rate of non-compliance with the eight areas audited by ICAO was 57 percent compared to the world average of 41 percent.
The global figure dropped to 39 percent in 2013. Experts said Nepal exhibited poor performance by bringing down the non-compliance rate by a mere 12 percent points in five years.
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