Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Airline Pilots Association on Sunday sent a letter to Biman’s Managing Director and CEO Zahid Hossain demanding investigation into irregularities in recent recruitment of contractual pilots and faults in the training department, ‘causing huge financial loss’ to the national flag carrier.
“There were some specific points of irregularities, which we have pointed out at different times to the authority,” the association said in the letter.
“We told them that the way contractual pilots were being recruited on contract is beyond regulation. The responsibility of the recruitment was given to the Chief of Training whose wife was also a candidate and which was surely a conflict of interest,” the letter said. When contacted, Zahid Hossain, MD and CEO of Biman told The New Nation on Sunday night that he had not received the letter yet.
The MD and CEO said also that he is unaware about which types of irregularities were cited in the letter.
“I may say something after getting the letter,” he said.
“The way recruitment was done, it has seriously tarnished the image of the national flag carrier as well as the pilot community. We, the pilot community, are not ready to take responsibility of such misdeeds of any individual,” the letter reads.
The Pilot Association has cited several examples of misdeeds, in the letter including that a spouse of an executive, who has a questionable professional record, has been recruited recently.
“The spouse of the executive stood first in her batch, which created widespread denigration in the organisation since she was sent back to Bangladesh Airlines Training Center (BATC) by instructors for her lack of knowledge. Now, She is having difficulties in continuing her training in B-777 fleet”, the letter said.
The Pilot Association accused of violating Biman’s Operation Manual (OM-D) and the bilateral agreement with the pilots’ platform blatantly in the process of recruitment.
