Blatant nepotism in CASA at taxpayers’ expense

 COULD the honourable minister concerned explain to  the tax-paying parents of PNG the reasons for enabling a certain senior officer in the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to employ his son  outside  the  normal recruitment processes and spending taxpayers’ money to train him to obtain a pilot licence? 

It is understood that the son graduated from University of Technology as a surveyor and was employed directly into the organisation and is up for the position of a flight operations inspector, which requires an experienced and licenced pilot. 

Two months after his employment, he was sent overseas for a two-month air navigation charts design  course at a non-appropriated cost of K40,000 at the taxpayers’ expense. 

The prerequisite  requirement for this  course  calls for either pilot or air traffic controller licence/experience. 

It is further understood that about a year later, the son obtained a private licence and his training  cost about a quarter  of a million kina of taxpayers’ money, just to qualify him for the pilot position that he has been employed as. 

The national government’s long standing policy on pilot training is that it does not sponsor or train pilots. 

This is left to the private sector and individuals. 

While thousands of our children, including university graduates, look for jobs every day, the minister chose to allow this to happen. 

Would  this not  be a case  of nepotism and corruption? 

CASA inspectors  are supposed to be technically qualified with years of experience in their  respective fields in order to ensure high safety standards within the aviation industry. 

Ambrose Kuvana

Kavieng, New Ireland