Question Marks Over Airport Company's Answers

(1)

...As A Cloud Of 'Inclarity', 'Confusion' & 'Uncertainty' Persist!

SOURCE: NEW CRUSADIING GUIDE

The Research Team of The New Crusading GUIDE, as indicated in our April 11, 2011 edition, driven by public interest and commitment to the national interest, sent a set of questions on March 2, 2011, to Mrs. Doreen Owusu-Fianko, Managing Director of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL), requesting for " information on general aviation/airport policy and related developments at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA)".

Readers will recall that in our May 16, 2011 edition, we lamented the "inclarity", "confusion and "indequacy" inherent in the first formal response(s) provided by the GACL Management to our first questionnaire dated March 2, 2011, and hoped that the GACL Management's response to a second questionnaire dated April 18, 2011, would provide " clear-cut answers to whether or not a competitive tendering process was conducted relative to the procurement of management services for the Perishable Cargo Center, KIA and the project for a new Catering Company whose participants/shareholders are still unclear".

Questions about non-transparency and lack of consultations with other stakeholders in the ground handling business in particular and the aviation industry in general, awaited urgent answers.

We also reported that some highly-placed personnel of many of the companies operating at KIA including the international airlines, had, contrary to the impression created by the GACL Management, intimated to our Research Scouts that there had been "zero communication and consultations" with them relative to some of the much-publicized or advertised initiatives being undertaken or anticipated as part of the larger process of the re-development of Ghana's main international gateway.

Tongues were wagging, and still are, as to the propriety of the owner of the aerodome seeking to compete with the companies it has licensed to offer a competitive environment in the aviation/ground handling business.

The GACL Management did provide answers to our second set of questions in a formal response dated May 26, 2011 which was signed by the Managing Director, Mrs. Doreen Owusu-Fianko.

A critical interrogation of those answers coupled with further "double-checking interactions" with some of the aviation industry's stakeholders have only re-inforced the "inclarity', "vagueness", "confusion', "uncertainty" and "inadequacy" arising out of the management style and "policy direction" of those who have been entrusted with the destiny of Ghana's international gateway.

Apart from a strategy of evasiveness and avoidance adopted by the GACL Management relative to some of the critical questions posed by our Research Team, some of the answers provided failed to satisfy the standards of transparency, sufficiency and technical/professional competency.

Questions such as how a 20 year building project without a timescale or how a Phase Three(3) Project already financed has no detail to each project other than an end date in 2012 popped up in our subsequent "verification/double-checking interactions" with some of the aviation industry's stakeholders, many of whom insisted the GACL Management had not involved them in any serious, active, business-like and construcive consultations.

They challenged the GACL Management to provide documentary evidence such as recordings of proceedings and/or minutes of the meetings and consultations it(GACL Management) claims it has held with them to substantiate its position.

"IF ALL THE PROJECTS ARE CAPITAL INTENSIVE WHAT ARE THE TIMESCALES FOR SOURCING FUNDS AS ONE WOULD HAVE TO BUILD THAT FACTOR INTO HIS OR HER BUSINESS PLAN FOR REPAYMENT. WHY ARE WE (STOCKHOLDERS/EXPORTERS, ETC) NOT AWARE OR INVOLVED IN A CONSULTATIVE PROCESS? HOW CAN THE AIRPORT COMPANY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALLOCATION AND LICENSING OF AIRPORT COMPANIES ENTER INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH STOCKHOLDERS AND STILL FAIRLY MANAGE ITS AIRPORT? OR IS IT GOING TO HAVE A THIRD PARTY MANAGE AND ALLOCATE TENDERS AND IT(AIRPORT OWNER) TENDER WITH EVERYONE ELSE? WHAT UNFAIR COMPETITION ADVANTAGE COULD BE INTERPRETED FROM SUCH A POLICY?", wondered a senior official of a major American private business entity involved in Ghana's Aviation Industry.

The New Crusading GUIDE intends to publish the findings/observations of our almost six(6) months research investigation into the happenings in and management practices of GACL in particular and Ghana's Aviation Industry in general in the not too distant future.

However, even before that publication and to be fair to the GACL Management, the full text of the two questionnaires sent to the GACL Management and the latter's formal response(s) will be published for the perusal of our readers, the general public and aviation industry stakeholders.

The first set of questions (March 2, 2011) and the GACL Management's answers (April 11, 2011) are published on page two (2) of today's edition. The second set of questions and answers will, hopefully, be published in next Monday's edition. Please stay tuned.....