Unless PIA is purged of its black sheep, billions of taxpayers’ hard-earned money will continue to go down the hole.
FAISALABAD: This is with reference to Ali Brohi’s informative op-ed on these pages on March 5. The organised pilferage and institutionalised corruption that happens in PIA could not have taken place without the connivance of former chief executives, during whose tenures, total losses skyrocketed, revenue collection declined and cartels were formed by a nexus of some PIA executives and travel agents.
Corruption in the procurement of items for flight kitchen, spare parts and contractual outsourcing occurs because of serious conflicts of interest, where some contracting firms are actually owned by serving employees or their family members. Several planes in the airline’s fleet, including B777s and ATRs, are grounded because of controversial procurement contracts. Furthermore, three primetime slots were surrendered in Dubai under the tenure of a former managing director.
Furthermore, the recent decision to lease 22 more aircraft lacks transparency and needs to be checked by the Auditor General of Pakistan because in all likelihood, it would violate the government’s own procurement rules. Unless PIA is purged of its black sheep, billions of taxpayers’ hard-earned money will continue to go down the financial black hole that has come to characterise PIA.
Abrar Khosa
Published in The Express Tribune, March 9th, 2014.
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