RNAC Haemorrhage
THAT Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) is a dangerously tottering organisation has
been an open secret for some years. Because it appeared that it was going to sink
irretrievably, some efforts have been to find ways and means to see whether it can be
resurrected from its present pitiable condition. A committee late last year suggested that
it either be privatised or converted into a new company according to the Company Act. It
provided detailed suggestions on how it could be privatised in a way that ensured
broad-based ownership. While the necessary homework either way must be ongoing at the
level of Ministry for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, a run-down on malpractices
engaged by RNAC officials and its agents has just been made public. A preliminary report
prepared by a probe committee, formed early this month, including its employees, has
revealed that one of the major reasons why the national flag-carrier is financially broke
is that while tickets are not made available to passengers, planes keep on flying empty,
costing the airlines millions of rupees per year. The report, according to a news report
in this daily, has even recorded a highly serious allegation that there was a group within
the airlines that was active in preventing passengers from buying tickets. If this is
true, as alleged, this is an extremely serious matter that needs to be looked into
urgently. How can any organisation hope to set right its finances, when its own officials
are engaged in sapping its financial strength? The report has blamed employees and agents
of such malpractices that allow the plane to fly empty even when passengers seeking RNAC
tickets are turned away from the counters.
All this is happening because there was no proper Central
Reservation System and the report says it is urgent to have a mechanism whereby details on
booked tickets are kept in the financial and other departments so that malpractices do not
occur. Excess baggage scam, it seems, it another exercise that contributes to RNAC
leakage. Checking that it calls rampant irregularity in the transportation of excess
baggage of passengers could give the airlines an additional profit of 100 million
annually. What has been revealed by the preliminary report itself is breathtaking in the
way the airlines appear to being bled for personal benefits by a group or groups of
"RNAC mafia". Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has already told
the management to carry out the necessary reforms. While the discussions on the larger
issue of how the future RNAC structure should be determined must continue, these cases of
massive wrongdoing by employees and/or agents must be stopped immediately. If possible, if
there are enough evidences, the guilty should be prosecuted for continuing to cause this
immense haemorrhage to the airlines.
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