Hosea Kutako licence threatened

THE Hosea Kutako International Airport is at risk of losing its operating licence today because of poor aviation security, the Namibia Civil Aviation Authority warned last week.

Namibia’s only international airport has been mired in controversy over the years, including being clouded by corruption around a now-cancelled N$7 billion upgrading contract and power struggles between the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) and the regulator, the Namibia Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The NCAA warned last week that the airport could lose its licence today if issues raised in an evaluation earlier this year were not addressed.

“The Hosea Kutako International Airport operating licence has been renewed for only one month, and will expire on 31 August 2018 due to poor performance in the most recent audit [May 2018],” NCAA executive director Angelina Simana stated in a 24 August letter to transport minister John Mutorwa.

She said the poor performance of the airport during the evaluation by the NCAA was because of things like the failure to identify an undetectable entry to the airport.

“Corrective measures are being undertaken by the Namibia Airports Company, and a further inspection will take place to ensure compliance levels are met,” Simana said.

Simana also briefed the minister about the upcoming International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) evaluation in November this year.

ICAO downgraded the airport in 2014 after an inspection identified safety breaches, such as the lack of adequate firefighting equipment at the airport.

The downgrade meant that bigger aircraft, such as Air Namibia’s Airbus A330-200 which flies to Frankfurt, were not allowed to land or take off from the airport.

Simana said the upcoming evaluation was critical because some airlines were already “deeply concerned” about safety at the airport.

According to her, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines made arrangements for its own secondary screening of passengers before boarding because it did not trust the security screening at the airport.

“KLM is considering whether it will continue operations to and from Windhoek because of the sub-standard Avsec [aviation security] provided by NAC [and] Nampol,” Simana said.

She also said that a review of the Hosea Kutako International Airport by the Airports Council International, conducted in March, recorded significant weaknesses in airport security.

The NAC, which manages national airports, complained last year that the NCAA was putting them under pressure to award the tender to renovate the international airport.

In fact, the two institutions clashed to such an extent that they were called in by President Hage Geingob last year. The NAC emerged victorious from that December 2017 meeting after they complained about political pressure to award tenders.

Now, Simana’s NCAA is against the removal of Albertus Aochamub as NAC acting chief executive and having had him replaced with NAC corporate governance strategic executive, Lot Haifidi.

“We have now had a total lack of accountability at the NAC since the departure of Albertus Aochamub at the beginning of August. There is currently no accountable manager at the NAC, and it is not going to be possible to renew the airport licence when it expires on 31 August, unless the matter is dealt with immediately,” she wrote.

Former NAC chairperson Rodgers Kauta told Mutorwa in August that Haifidi was fit for the job.

Simana rubbished Kauta’s assessment of Haifidi’s fitness to lead the NAC through the upcoming evaluation.

She said Haifidi refused to take part in a “fit and proper person test”, a test done at the national aviation regulator to determine whether a person was suitable to lead an organisation.

“A full understanding and cultural commitment to aviation safety and security is essential, and he is required to demonstrate this during a ‘fit and proper person test’ prior to being appointed as [the] accountable officer,” she wrote.

According to her, Aochamub – who had no previous aviation experience when he was appointed in February this year – was fit and proper, and progress had been made on improving security at the airports company.

Apart from writing that Aochamub’s exit may cause instability at the NAC, Simana added that Haifidi’s appointment was done without her knowledge.

She claimed that because the appointment had to do with aviation safety and security, the NCAA was supposed to have been involved in the process.

Simana again disagreed with Haifidi’s appointment, while stating that although he “may have impressive legal credentials, [it] is irrelevant to the role of the accounting manager for an aviation role”, which she said required operational knowledge and experience.

Sources said Haifidi was scheduled to take the test yesterday, and the results were expected to be communicated to him today.

There is talk that Aochamub, who passed the test, could be brought back if Haifidi fails. Simana confirmed writing the letter to Mutorwa, saying “the letter in my assessment had a number of misstatements about regulatory and legal frameworks”. Simana told yesterday that the letter was written at the request of the works ministry, which wanted to know if there were any regulatory concerns regarding the decision to remove Aochamub.

She also pointed out that the NCAA would be the entity failed or passed by the ICAO audit, and not the NAC, which is just a participant in the aviation system, like Air Namibia, whose facilities would be visited to assess the effectiveness of the NCAA.

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