Multan airport: Aviation division asked to conduct inquiry into recruitments

A parliamentary panel Monday directed the division of Aviation to conduct an inquiry into the recruitment of 258 employees against 181 sanctioned posts at Multan International Airport in 2012.
MNA Syed Naveed Qamar while chairing the meeting of the subcommittee of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) here was informed by the officials of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) that in 2012-13 the government sanctioned 181 positions for the Multan International Airport but the Authority recruited 258 people, which is putting a Rs 46 million additional burden on the national kitty.
The panel also directed the director general Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to conduct an inquiry into the revelations of the AGP about massive financial irregularities in the department.
The audit officials also said that over the years PIA's revenue had been significantly declining as it was Rs 112 billion in 2012 which in 2015 reduced to Rs 91 billion. The chairman committee said that now the government must decide either to privatise PIA or keep feeding billions of rupees to the loss-making entity.
The committee also expressed serious anger over the absence of PIA chief, saying that most of the audit paras were related to PIA but the PIA chief was not present.
The committee discussed an audit para regarding Rs 1.25 billion losses to the PIA due to hiring of 3,765 employees by the PIA management through third-party hiring, despite the national flag carrier had 14,771 staff. The panel said that the PIA is already overstaffed and why the management hired such a huge number of private employees and paid them salaries.
Qamar directed the CAA director general to conduct an inquiry into Rs 4.073 billion losses to the PIA as a result of defective agreements with the Association of Pakistan Travel Agents (APTA).
The committee also directed the CAA director general to hold another inquiry into $ 5.720 million losses to the PIA due to overcharging by a service provider, asking why no steps have been taken by the management for recovery of the amount despite the passage of many years.
The CAA director general informed the committee that the business plan of PIA has been finalised, saying that implementation of new business plan will improve the economic situation of the national flag carrier.
Qamar observed that he has been hearing about the business plan for the last many years but no practical steps have been taken to improve the PIA's financial health.