DGCA lacks both financial and technical independence

After Mangalore crash, there have been a series of near misses such as a tyre burst in Delhi, a go-around at Patna airstrip and sudden descent over Muscat while the pilot took a toilet break.
These are signs that our safety apparatus is under stress. While we cheered and gloated over the growth in civil aviation, new aircraft and new or refurbished airports, little attention was paid to safety surveillance.
We need to clarify where the buck stops and who are the stakeholders. At one end is the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the safety regulator. The second is the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which has the statutory charge of air traffic management and are, therefore, the sole service provider for air traffic management.
Third is the ministry of civil aviation. Both the DGCA and the AAI are subordinate to the ministry. The only difference is that AAI is an independent authority with its own finances and its chairman and executive directors are appointed by the Public Enterprises Selection Board. DGCA, is, unfortunately, an attached office of the ministry with very little financial and non-financial powers. The budget of the DGCA is a part of the ministry’s budget, and therein lies the problem.
The lack of independent status almost cripples the DGCA. Unlike in other countries such as the US where the FAA comes under the Department of Transport but is independent by tradition and statute, DGCA appointments are an internal matter for the government. This puts DGCA at a disadvantage. All essential matters have to be referred to the ministry. All accident reports have to be approved by the ministry. He cannot create even a post of peon.
It is high time that DGCA was made into an independent authority with financial independence and with power to create technical posts and fill them up. Without such independence, issues of surveillance over safety oversight in aviation will remain a pipe dream.
10/06/10 Sanat Kaul, chairman IFAAD (India Chapter)/Economic Times

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Categories: Safety Jun 2010