BIMAN MD Kevin Steele who recently tendered resignation from his post agreed to continue for some more time until the airline finds a new successor. According to a media report in a national daily the Biman board of directors have requested him to continue for a short while but questions have been raised from within the organization and outside as to why he is failing to perform the job and whether any new Managing Director will have the magic to settle issues which Kevin was not lucky enough to handle. Kevin was the first expatriate managing director and chief executive officer of Biman appointed for a two-year term on March 2013 with the expectations that he would be able to remove corruptions and irregularities to bring normalcy to the national airliners which was almost on the brink when he took over.
As we see, Biman could never earn profits except for a short three year period since its inception in 1972. The non-stop ‘nose-dive’ has been widely attributed to deep seated corruptions and irregularities which are at the level of robberies by certain vested interest quarters having their roots in powerful political families and parties. It appears that Kevin lost the struggle to the powerful syndicates as he was not provided with strong political support to reorganize the organization. Rather he faced stiff opposition at every level and thus he decided to leave. Kevin earlier wrote to Chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in January to launch a probe into widespread grafts in Biman. He identified some groups of corrupt officials and union leaders and they in turn came up openly to make his life unbearable. Consequently Kevin resigned citing the health reasons, although he is quite a healthy man capable of lifting any amount of weight any time.
We know that there are persons and groups of officials and union leaders who want that Biman must accommodate their self-interest. Many of them even sell Biman’s tickets but don’t deposit money. Others control out-stations and deny accountability to Biman authority. Yet another group seeks to control procurement and such other business. This is how Biman has been made sick over the years.
During the former caretaker government attempts were made to corporatise Biman and over 1,877 employees were retired. But most of them returned after the Awami League came to power.
Kevin regrettably expressed his desperation on several occasions over Biman’s mismanagement, profit mongering CBA leaders and high-powered syndicates of corrupt officials. Reports said Kevin wanted to close an unofficial ‘travel agency’ run by some CBA leaders as they would buy tickets with special discounts to make profits selling it to public. It made the CBA leaders angry.
Now the question arises as to how the government wants to run Biman whether or not Kevin stays with it. As we know the problem is due to unruly corruptions at all levels and if the government does not act to stop it, no new managing director will be able to turn Biman into a profitable organization as Kevin is leaving failing in his fight to stop corruption and Biman’s rapid nose-dive.
