Aviation law amendment takes off, but safety watchdog stays grounded

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 12/18/2008 7:21 AM  |  Headlines

The newly passed aviation bill, though en-suring greater customer protection and involvement of private investors in airport businesses, has yet to fully meet expectations of an overhaul in safety supervision.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives endorsed an amendment to the 1992 law on aviation that would slap stricter safety requirements on airlines, especially newcomers, in response to demands from the EU.

The government and legislators have rushed the deliberations over the past six months to encourage the EU to lift its ban on Indonesian airliners in European airspace, implemented in 2007.

“We will soon translate this law (into English) and pass it on to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),” Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said. “If the ICAO approves our standards, the EU will have no reason to ban us, except on a discriminatory basis.”

The ban came into effect after a string of aviation accidents in Indonesia, the deadliest being the crash of an Adam Air jet in early 2007 that killed all 102 people on board.

The new law entails more elaborate safety and flight-worthy standards than the previous one, which contained loose articles and numerous loopholes.

Article 58 of the new law, for instance, regulates standards for aircraft personnel, including flight licenses and health checks, while the older law merely mentioned an obligatory certificate.

“If an airliner is not airworthy, the government may impose sanctions upon the airline and its personnel,” Jusman said.

However, the law falls short of improving the quality and independence of air safety watchdog, the Air Safety Certification Directorate (DSKU), which is still under the auspices of the Transportation Ministry, albeit with its own funding authority.

The EU has repeatedly requested the government make the country’s air safety watchdog independent in exchange for lifting the flight ban.

The request has been driven by the apparent lack of integrity and capacity among the agency’s officials.

As an independent body, the DSKU would be expected to get a more flexible budget and higher remuneration packages for its inspectors, thus cutting down the risk of collusion and conflicts of interest.

Budhi Muliawan Suyitno, head of the ministry’s directorate general of air transportation, said the DSKU would only be independent in terms of financing to hire more competent inspectors.

“The DSKU will be autonomous in its financial management, receiving funds from the nation’s non-tax revenue and not the state budget,” he said, adding the agency would remain under the ministry.

The DSKU currently employs 120 technicians and inspectors to monitor 2,000 airplanes. They are paid between Rp 1.5 million (US$132) and Rp 5 million per month. (dis)

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