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Kathmandu Saturday December 02, 2000 Mangshir 17, 2057.
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Get to the bottom
The manner in which state owned and run Royal Nepal Airlines
Corporation (RNAC) has gone about leasing an aircraft from Lauda Air no doubt points to
something much more serious than meets the eye. For the first time a state controlled
enterprise has openly defied government instructions. Why? It may be pointed out that it
was during Girija Prasad Koirala’s first stint as prime minister in the early 1990s
that Royal Nepal Airlines was involved in the infamous Dhamija scandal. It had also sold a
Boeing 727 aircraft at throw away price only to obtain on lease another similar aircraft
at a later date. This time around, despite the fact that parliament’s Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) had directed RNAC to suspend all process related to the leasing deal, the
airline went ahead with it. Even the letter from the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry
to RNAC to abide by the PAC directive was ignored. The jet has now arrived at Tribhuvan
International Airport. RNAC has now hurriedly scheduled regular flights with the newly
leased aircraft. The question that has to be raised is not whether or not RNAC needs the
aircraft -- it might -- but whether or not RNAC, a body that continues to be subsidised by
the government, can go about defying government directives, that too, by a set of board of
directors including the CEO appointed by the government. It is clear that the stakes in
the Air deal must be high. Why else would RNAC management, including the present set of
directors, defy the government and parliamentary instructions? Such things would obviously
not have happened unless the top management of the corporation was certain it would be
protected. It is, therefore, not unlikely that the present RNAC management did what it did
at the instructions of unseen and, therefore, extra-constitutional forces.
The government will do well to order an impartial inquiry
into the whole shady and shoddy affair and, if necessary, get the help of the Austrian
government in the matter. The help from a foreign government, which we believe has faith
in transparency, will involve financial details regarding the RNAC-Lauda deal. Royal Nepal
Airlines has, on the face of it, leased the aircraft at 3350 US dollars per flying hour
with a minimum guarantee of 300 hours per months. The actual cost per flying hour could be
higher than 4688 US dollars. That is a minimum outflow from Nepal to Lauda Air of 1.4
million dollars. RNAC has to meet the cost of at least five -- if not eight -- sets of
cabin and cockpit crew. No wonder there was all round opposition to the deal. The
nation’s flag carrier is thus being bled white. This is all the more reason why the
hidden hand in the RNAC deal must be exposed. Obviously, monetary gains rather than
service to passengers have been the motive and a high level independent probe will easily
be able to identify and punish the guilty. If ours is even a tenth of the democracy that
we pretend it is, the government must ensure a thorough probe independent and free of any
government interference so that it can get to the bottom of the issue.
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