03 Jul 2024

Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB) chief executive officer, Dr Bao Mosinyi says there is need to restructure the authority in order to align it with their approved five-year corporate strategy of 2024-2029.

 

The strategy themed: Transforming CAAB into an agile high-performance civil aviation authority - a new beginning,  aims to achieve revenue growth, operational efficiency and effective implementation of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defined safety and security standard by 95 per cent by 2029.

 

“By achieving our 95 per cent target, then we can talk about making Botswana centre of aviation,” he said during a briefing in Maun, Tuesday to appraise media practitioners on the authority operations.

 

Dr Mosinyi, therefore, noted that they required government support to achieve their objective of organisational restructuring.

 

He noted that the successful execution of the transformation strategy hinged on an organisational structure that supported the mandate and critical business functions of the authority.

 

The current structure, he said was not fit for purpose and was not aligned to strategy. 

 

Restructuring, he said does not mean retrenching employees as some people may think but their intention was to optimise what they had.

 

“We are excited about our strategy which states agile transformation and our restructuring will not change a lot as our intention is to transform the organisation for better by developing strategies to move forward successfully,” he added.

 

Dr Mosinyi also noted the authority was still in the first quarter of the strategy and their aim was to generate more revenue to self sustain and augment government subvention, noting that they intend to at least generate P500 million per year by 2029.

 

The authority also needed the government to help towards the appointment of a board of directors as the term of service for CAAB board expired on the March 31.

 

Dr Mosinyi revealed that currently they had only board chairperson remaining, and explained that during audit, they have to write to the minister requesting permission because they had no board to play the role. 

 

He expressed optimism that the government would urgently look into the matter and appoint a new board.

 

The Civil Aviation Act prescribes who may or may not be a board member and in appointing members of the board, the act requires the relevant minister to ensure that members possess demonstrated experience and capability in relevant disciplines including but not limited to air transportation, industry, commerce, finance and engineering among others.

 

On other issues, Dr Mosinyi also called on government to help on the review of the land board lease rate citing that currently, they could not afford to pay the lease rates of their 23 strategic air fields.

 

He said it was expensive for the authority to maintain the air fields, and on the other hand, they were not generating any revenue. 

 

Currently, he said they owed land boards P150 million lease rate and “we cannot afford to pay the money at the moment.

 

We have some discussions with the relevant ministry because we believe the rates charged are not sustainable more so that the strategic air fields are not generating income,” he added.

 

Furthermore, the media practitioners was also informed that the authority had just reviewed the Civil Aviation regulations with a view to ensure local compliance with international standards and regulations and enhancement of the local civil aviation regulatory environment and industry.

 

Dr Mosinyi revealed that drones would now be regulated according to the international standards citing that the other regulation they were working on was the consumer protection.

 

Media practitioners also learnt that Botswana underwent an ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme Continuous Monitoring Approach audit from  June 18-27. 

 

The audit covered Aerodromes and Ground Aids which were not covered during the 2022 audit and the score currently stood at 80.1 per cent. Ends