ISLAMABAD:
Audit officials told Parliament’s accountability body on Wednesday that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) suffered a loss of Rs22 billion due to the prolonged grounding of its planes.
The Office of the Auditor General informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the PIA aircraft spent a prolonged period under routine maintenance, ranging from 44 to 239 days, resulting in substantial losses in 2022.
While discussing audit objections of the Aviation Division for the year 2023-24, officials revealed that one aircraft was grounded for 652 days. The audit department estimated that due to management negligence, prolonged delays occurred, resulting in unwarranted operational and financial losses of Rs 21.82 billion.
The PIA suffered additional losses of Rs 8.6 billion due to inability to dispose of spare parts or decommissioned aircraft. The audit observed that the management held a stock of spare parts from decommissioned aircraft worth Rs8.566 billion for the period 2015-2021, which had not been disposed of in violation of rules. The spare parts included parts from the 747, 707, Cessna, SA-310 and WB-737 aircraft.
The audit found that the failure to dispose of spare parts reflected negligence and a lack of efficiency.
Apart from losing Rs2.61 billion due to non-implementation of the board’s directives regarding properties, and another Rs1.669 billion due to irregular payments made without validation by the user department, the PIA also suffered a loss of Rs0.112 billion due to irregular procurement of stores and spare parts.
In 2022, the audit highlighted that PIA management purchased various items worth Rs 0.112 billion without following the rules of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and through non-pre-qualified suppliers.
In response to these objections raised by the Office of the Auditor General, Defense Ministry officials said the planes were grounded due to restrictions following the Covid pandemic.
Grounding has also become necessary due to global supply chain issues. They attributed it to structural repairs, financial constraints and payment issues that affected the ability to complete maintenance and repairs in a timely manner.
Delays in the deployment of these aircraft were caused by unscheduled repairs to the fuselage structure. Structural repairs are both unplanned and require additional time and materials,” the Defense Ministry said, adding that rentals for these aircraft have also been kept to a minimum.
