CAG: doesn't Ajit Singh’s admission confirm our findings on Air India?

New Delhi: Appraising its own Civil Aviation report (Air India) of September 2011, the Comptroller and Auditor-General has described the criticism of its findings as an attempt “to shoot the messenger,” and pointed to several subsequent events that have ratified the conclusions.
The report highlighted that Air India’s acquisition plan had been a recipe for disaster ab initio. The CAG criticised the national carrier and the Civil Aviation Minister “for an unduly delayed acquisition process that was disastrous for [the] financial health of the commercial airline.” The acquisition of 111 new aircraft for Air India and Indian Airlines was a “recipe for disaster.”
The report highlighted that Air India’s original proposal for acquisition of 18+10 aircraft took its own time for processing but the revised proposal for 18+50 aircraft was processed faster. The CAG also criticised the merger of the two state-run carriers as “ill-timed” and said, “The financial case for merger was not adequately validated prior to the merger.”
05/07/12 shalini Singh/The Hindu

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Categories: airports Jul 2012