Babus ground ethics for aviation jobs

Senior officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the country's civil aviation regulator, have allegedly breached ethics to ensure that their children get jobs in private airlines at hefty pay packages.
As conflict of interest is staring at their face, their alibi is that they have obtained prior approval from the ministry of civil aviation. But investigations by MAIL TODAY revealed that it is true only for certain DGCA officials.
Even if they do, they continue to regulate and maintain oversight of the same airlines their children work for.
Take DGCA director-general SNA Zaidi, who is charged with regulating all airlines operating in India. His son, a lawyer, was employed by Jet Airways in its legal division.
Zaidi is not alone. Joint director-general R. P. Sahi's son works as a first officer for Jet Airways.
Deputy director-general A. K. Sharan's daughter is a co-pilot at Indigo. Director of air transport Lalit Gupta's daughter worked with Indigo for three years. She was, until recently, the airline's assistant manager (commercial). Before joining Indigo, she was employed with SpiceJet for two years.
Deputy director-general Charan Dass's daughter is an engineer with SpiceJet. Director (air safety) R.S. Passi's daughter flies for SpiceJet. Chief flight operations inspector Capt H.Y. Samant's daughter is a pilot with Indigo. In some cases, officers themselves joined private airlines soon after retirement in violation of service rules.
The central government's conduct rules prohibit officials from accepting offers from private organisations with whom they have dealt with in their official capacity. If there is a case of conflict of interest, it is mandatory to make full disclosure.
It is this disclosure that has become the defence armour for some DGCA officials, who have claimed immunity saying they sought the civil aviation ministry's permission before their children took up jobs in private airlines. But it is also true that there is no mechanism to ensure that the officials concerned recuse themselves from handling the airlines that have employed their children, rendering the full disclosure clause meaningless.
13/05/10 Ajmer Singh/Mail Today/India Today

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2010