GCAA working to ramp up staff capacity by 2018

Sep 18, 2017 News

The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, (GCAA) is working to ramp up the capacity of technical staff within the Authority. According to Director General of the GCAA, Egbert Field, the need for more staff will be a part of the budget proposal for next year.
He noted that the staff complement is set to increase by 2018.
“Once all goes well with our budget allocation, we are expected to increase the staff, by next year, Field told reporters on Tuesday.
He said that the Aviation Agency is looking to employ qualified and experienced persons to fill the various vacant positions within the authority.
“We are looking to employ persons with the kind of ability, persona, competence and skills needed.”
The GCAA Director noted, however that the kind of skills needed for the job, suitable qualifications and experience will be easily accessed locally.
“The industry is a very competitive one; hence we will be competing with the other territories for the same set of skills.
He emphasised that it was therefore pertinent, that the GCAA can compete with the remuneration package offered by agencies outside of Guyana. Field said that the funding to acquire the new staff has since been a part of the Budget discussions for next year.
According to the Director, Aviation Inspectors are among the positions that GCAA is looking to recruit.
“An inspector has a very important job to do. When an inspector writes a report, it is recommendations for better regulations in the industry; hence it becomes law and can be challenged in a court of law.”
Last month, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said that Government has mandated the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to ramp up checks and inspections of aircraft and facilities following the deaths of two pilots, who perished as a result of plane crashes in the interior.

GCAA Director General, Egbert Field

In a statement to the press, Minister Harmon opined that is the third plane crash in less than two months and the Government is deeply concerned.
“We have asked the Director of Civil Aviation for there to be more frequent levels of inspection of these aircraft, of the pilots and the facilities they use to ensure that there is a higher level of safety in these operations. We, as a small country, cannot continue to lose young men in the prime of their lives to accidents. We are calling on the Director to increase [the] level of investigation and oversight over all of the operators to ensure that the serviceability of these aircrafts are checked, that the time and hours of the pilots, which they fly must also be checked and this must not just be a one off check but a regular check. Also time and again, what we call ramp checks [random checks],” the Minister of State said.
Minister Harmon said that safety is a major concern for the administration and it is for this reason that the Government has been expending large amounts money in the development of airstrips, particularly those located in the hinterland. “We have expended quite a sum of money on the conditions of our hinterland airstrips. In the 2016 and 2017 Budgets, huge sums of monies were allocated for the development of these airstrips out of these concerns not only for the pilots themselves but for the passengers that they carry. We want to see a safe aviation industry so that the people who have to use these aircraft must be doing so according to regulations that can be classified as a very safe corridor,” he noted.