By John V Sserwaniko
Two weeks ago, Civil Aviation Authority was given the ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems Certificate by the reputable UK Accreditation Services (UKAS) meaning its standards and quality of work is now comparable to globally-recognized best practices. But CAA MD Dr. David Kakuba says this could have come much earlier on making the entity scale even better global ratings if it weren’t for the many gaps existing in the CAA Act. He says there are many ways in which the law in its current form constrains CAA from executing its mandate in a manner that complies with the ICAO-imposed standards. Speaking at the aviation stakeholders breakfast meeting at Serena Hotel Thursday morning, Kakuba said inadequate legislation is one of the few areas where ICAO compliance auditors have always found CAA operations wanting and thereby preventing the inspectors from giving CAA 100% rating. Kakuba was one of the many aviation experts at the breakfast meeting that urged Works Minister Monica Azuba Ntege (who was guest of honor) to ensure parliament expeditiously enacts the proposed amendments. This will increase CAA’s global competitiveness and compliance at the subsequent ICAO audit ratings.
THE BACKGROUND;
The CAA Act has existed for 27 years since the founding of the Aviation Authority in 1991. “The attainment of the ISO 9001 standards is a big achievement for us because we have achieved it ahead of the December 2019 deadline ICAO had set for all African aviation regulators to qualify,” braggingly said Kakuba adding that Uganda is now at par with Kenya and Tanzanian aviation Authorities that got theirs earlier. Boosting of more than 200 members, ICAO in full is International Civil Aviation Organization and it’s a standards-enforcement body on aviation matters. Azuba regretted the delay in carrying out the necessary arrangements but promised to do the needful soon “because the Bill is already on the order paper & will soon be discussed.” She said emergencies like the boat cruise tragedy had previously pushed the matter off the order paper. “Emergencies have been delaying debate on that matter and we regret that,” said Azuba who proceeded to commend CAA top management for making use of the aviation week to “have a meeting like this one to be able to update stakeholders on the progress made this year.” She implied that of all the entities and agencies under her docket, CAA had registered best performance this year and thereby enabling her deliver as a political leader. Kakuba, whose views were later on echoed by key note speaker Hon Alain St. Ange (a leading influence in the global aviation and tourism circles), said by enacting the necessary amendments, Uganda will have addressed many of the concerns ICAO auditors have annually been emphasizing as areas of non-compliance to international requirements. With the first reading already done, Azuba was optimistic the bill will soon be processed to enable Kakuba & company become more compliant while meeting their international obligations.
WHAT’S CHANGING?
The amendments are aimed at altering many things including creating the accidents & investigations unit that can independently probe CAA’s ineptness as a regulator each time something goes wrong in the aviation industry. For instance whenever there is an accident (God forbid), the minister appoints a team of investigators to (among other things) establish the regulator’s culpability but the same regulator CAA is the one that funds the investigations. ICAO considers this to be contrary to global best practices because an independent report is unlikely to be produced since CAA, that could potentially be held culpable, finances the process. The amendment seeks to ensure the investigations unit is independent and directly funded from the consolidated fund and not through CAA. Yet that isn’t all. CAA is legally mandated to do routine inspections to establish the different aircrafts’ airworthiness (especially private ones) but under the current law, that vital inspection can only occur as and when the aircraft owner feels he/she is ready to let the CAA inspectors in. Kakuba says the amendment will improve aviation security and safety as CAA inspectors will have unlimited access and won’t require permission of the private owners whose ineptness they are out to investigate in the first place. The position of the Aviation Authority head too is changing from MD to that of Director General (DG) and Kakuba says this will bring Uganda at par because that is the practice elsewhere in the ICAO member countries. “All my colleagues are called DGs and I have been the only one carrying a title which is different,” Kakuba clarified in his presentation which also covered the areas of great transformation and progress CAA has registered in the last 12 months. In a subsequent speech, BoD member Eng Mackenzie Ogweng said separating CAA’s regulatory and operation mandate is one of the few areas they are uncomfortable with in the proposed amendments. Otherwise he was optimistic that once the legal loopholes are addressed, CAA will begin scoring 100% at the subsequent ICAO audit inspections. He expressed optimism that the resultant efficiency will enable CAA to increase aviation traffic coming through Entebbe International Airport. He said at 1.6m passengers (which Kakuba called great achievement), Uganda was still not doing very well when compared to Kenya’s 8m passengers annually and South Africa’s 15m. “Countries like Ethiopia are way above this and our relentless efforts should be at doing much better than we currently are,” said Eng Ogweng who was to later chair a panel discussion at which Olive Lumonya eloquently answered CSR-related questions from the audience on the BoD’s behalf. Consensus at the meeting was that amending the law and adjusting it to meet contemporary global aviation challenges will attract many more airline operators to begin doing business through Entebbe International Airport. The only regrettable thing was that all these views were being expressed without a single MP being in attendance notwithstanding the fact that invitations had been sent out and organizers expected significant presence of the legislature.
OTHER REQUESTS;
Besides legal reforms, there are other requests the CAA management made to Minister Azuba including giving Soroti Flying School to the Aviation Authority which is in the process to begin its own Aviation training Institute. “That is a welcome proposal as the MD has said because why do you go building a new thing from scratch when we already have one in place?” Azuba rhetorically said in response to what Kakuba had said earlier. Kakuba had justified his request on grounds that the Flying School’s full potential would be better utilized once its transferred to more capacitated CAA. They also demanded for the inclusion of Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) on the CAA governing board and vice versa. According to Eng Ogweng, this is crucial “because tourism and transport go hand in hand.” Azuba promptly endorsed this suggestion which was also emphasized by Hon. Alain St. Ange as part of his key note address. Famous for transforming the aviation/tourism sector of Seychelles (where he was minister), Alain was engaged by the CAA management to specifically come and advise Uganda on how the two sectors (tourism & aviation) can be harnessed to contribute better to national development. And he didn’t disappoint because the audience seemed to like and concur with most of things he said as a key note speaker. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
