Administrative and financial failure casts a shadow of doubt over the National Safety Authority

In accordance with Cabinet Decision No. 423 of 2012, the National Safety Authority (NSA) engaged a Canadian company to carry out a training program and deploy 250 air training trainees to the State of Canada.

The training program is aimed at 250 trainee pilots and technicians, the bulk of whom have undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, for 21 months of training in fixed-wing and vertical aircraft.

According to the source, the National Safety Authority is suffering from a significant lack of trained pilots, as mentioned in a letter from the General Directorate of Police Aviation, while this training program has been disregarded, leaving it just ink on paper.

The National Safety Authority requested that the then-Prime Minister give 67 million dinars to cover the costs of this training course, which was allocated to the acquisition of a number of helicopters under Cabinet Decision No. 693 of 2013.

After reaching an agreement with a Canadian company on the training program and the deployment of air trainees, the signed training contract was ignored until the Libyan Embassy in Canada was informed that, in the event of failure to implement the agreement with the Authority, the National Safety Authority had been informed that the contract’s implementation on the Libyan side had been delayed.

According to the letter, the Libyan Embassy in Canada urged the National Safety Authority to speed the implementation of the training program in order to conserve dignity and integtirty.

In the midst of this administrative chaos, the designated head of the National Safety Authority issued Order No. 146 of 2021, transferring a number of employees, primarily pilots and technicians, from the Air Office to the Ain Zara department with the mission of serving as firefighters, rather than being sent to receive the Canadian company’s contracted training program.

The decision to move the personnel was made in response to a request by the Canadian National Safety Authority to implement the provisions of the agreement.

These employees were considered missing from work because they did not report to their new duty station in the Ain Zara department, which lacks basic work capability and services.

Furthermore, 50 staff members were allocated to work in each shift, with little regard for the coronavirus’s safety or prevention.