ISLAMABAD:
Audit officials on Wednesday told Parliament’s accountability arm that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) suffered a loss of Rs22 billion due to the prolonged grounding of its aircraft.
The National Audit Office informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the PIA aircraft spent a longer period in routine maintenance, ranging from 44 to 239 days, resulting in significant losses in 2022.
While discussing the Aviation Division’s audit objections for the year 2023-24, officials revealed that one aircraft was grounded for 652 days. The audit department was of the opinion that due to the negligence of the management, long delays occurred, resulting in unjustified operating and financial losses of 21.82 billion.
PIA incurred additional losses of Rs8.6 billion due to non-disposal of spare parts or retired aircraft. The audit observed that management had an inventory of spare parts from retired aircraft worth Rs 8.566 billion. for the period 2015-2021, which had not been disposed of in violation of the rules. The spare parts included parts from 747, 707, Cessna, SA-310 and WB-737 aircraft.
The audit noted that the failure to dispose of spare parts reflected negligence and inefficiency.
Apart from losing Rs 2.61 billion due to non-implementation of the board’s directives regarding properties, and another Rs 1.669 billion due to irregular payments made without validation by the user department, PIA also suffered a loss of Rs0.112 billion from the irregular purchases of stores and spare parts.
In 2022, the audit pointed out that PIA management had procured various items worth Rs 0.112 billion. without complying with the rules of the Public Procurement Authority (PPRA) and through non-pre-qualified suppliers.
In response to these objections from the National Audit Office, officials from the Ministry of Defense said that planes were grounded due to restrictions following the Covid pandemic.
The grounding also became necessary due to global supply chain issues. They attributed it to structural repairs, financial constraints and payment problems affecting the ability to perform timely maintenance and repairs.
The delays in the rollout of these aircraft were caused by unplanned repairs in the fuselage structure. Structural repairs are both unforeseen and require additional time and materials,” the defense ministry said, adding that leases on these aircraft were also reduced to a minimum.
