ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was asked by the Senate’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to look into the controversial sale of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane to a German museum.
Earlier this year, the airplane (A-130)—which is still capable of flight—was sold to a museum in Leipzig, despite the fact that no permission had been sought, senators had informed in March, adding that neither an agreement was signed nor the PIA received any advance payment for its sale.
On the other hand, PIA Spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar had said that the plane had not gone missing; rather it was in Germany, where it had been flown after being chartered to a British company for picturising a movie in Malta.
Upon the PAC’s review of audit objections in connection with the aviation sector, Committee Chairman Khursheed Shah said that the issue of the missing plane brought Pakistan a bad name.
He asked: “How come a plane of the national flag carrier reached Germany without any due process?” Shah ordered NAB to investigate the matter as well as finding out who had ordered the name of Bernd Hildenbrand, former acting chief executive officer (CEO) of the airline, to be removed from the Exit Control List.
It is crucial to note that earlier, Hildenbrand’s name had been placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) after a number of corruption charges were made against him. He was also charged with selling the ‘missing’ plane to a museum in Germany. The German national had gone on leave and was later removed from the post. In September, a minister had said that the former CEO had taken the plane home while leaving Pakistan. As of right now, his name is not on the ECL and he is believed to be in Germany.
The chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), during Tuesday’s meeting, told the committee that a Malta-based film production company had hired the plane against $210,000. Later, the plane was directly flown from Malta to a museum in Germany.
The chairman also informed the committee that the foreign adviser of the PIA, who had finalised the deal, was an employee of the same company which was purchasing the plane.
Shah, vowing to bring the matter to its logical end, asked for the record of the foreign trips taken by high-rank holding officials of PIA over the past year.
Moreover, the PAC also reviewed the issue of constructing 15 bridges for passengers at New Islamabad International Airport.
Audit officials told the PAC that irregularities worth Rs5.99 billion have been found in the contracts for the construction of these bridges.
Meanwhile, according to a statement submitted by an official of the Aviation Division, the PIA suffered losses amounting to more than Rs146 billion during the last four years.
The details stated that after rising losses in 2013, the trend reversed in 2014 and 2015, with the airline incurring 27 per cent less losses; however, a surge in losses in 2016 was expected due to increasing financial expenses resulting from PIA’s acquisition of new aircraft on lease and payment of markup on legacy loans.
Thus, in 2016 alone the national flag-carrier incurred estimated losses worth Rs37bn.
As per the details provided by the official, PIA incurred the following losses in past four years:
- 2013: 44.32 billion
- 2014: 32.22 billion
- 2015: 32.53 billion
- 2016: 36.95 billion (estimated)
