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As Ban Fetes His Envoys' Nepal
Roles, Copter Co. Vertical-T is Suspended, UN Heats Up
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 6 -- As the UN celebrated
its contribution to the Nepali peace process, in a ceremony Wednesday
at which
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave a speech, more quietly news emerged
that the
UN helicopter contractor responsible for a deadly crash in Nepal in
March has
now quietly been suspended by the UN. Inner City
Press had asked the UN's envoy
to Nepal, Ian Martin, for his response to the national aviation
authority's
report which severely criticized the UN's contractor, Vertical-T. Mr. Martin had said he was not the one to
answer, so the questions were directed elsewhere. And this written
answer
resulted:
Here is the reply from the UN
Department of Field Support on your question... The State of
Occurrence (Nepal),
has provided the UN with a copy of the Final report. The report is
currently
being reviewed by the relevant Accredited Representatives to the
accident
investigation. As per established procedures, once the review has been
completed DFS will follow up on all the recommendations in the report.
Meanwhile, for internal purposes,
the UN convened a Board of Inquiry (BOI) to review the circumstances of
the
accident and make recommendations concerning any actions, steps or
measures,
which the board considers should be taken by the UN authorities to
avoid the
reoccurrence of such accidents.
Vertical-T has been suspended as
a UN registered vendor. The reasons for the suspension are a lack of
cooperation with the Nepalese Accident Commission and an inability to
meet
contractual requirements. The UN
currently has no charter agreements with Vertical-T.
Helicopter in Nepal in February, Vertical-T's
March crash not shown
As for the procedures for
modifying existing contracts or taking negative performance reviews
into
account in future contracting, DFS has established Aviation Quality
Assurance and
Accident Prevention Programs in place that address contractual,
operational,
performance and safety issues.
This
reporter, in riding in a Vertical-T helicopter in Chad in June,
noted that
all safety information was in Russian, and communications with the
pilots was
impossible.
Footnote: at the
Nepal even on Wednesday, on the
other hand, Ban Ki-moon was sired around by Chinese Ambassador Wang, as
Lynn
Pascoe and Vijay Nambiar worked the crowd. There was grumbling, yes,
about
Ban's
decision to raise the temperature in Headquarters, to save money
and the
environmental. The number of electric fans coming in continues to
climb, and
Ban is slated to leave on a vacation.
Should the UN Department of Political Affairs have
given advice on this?
We'll see.
Watch this site.
And
this --
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