On November 20th, 2018, CASA provide me with the “inspection” notes from the audit done at Latrobe Valley on September 3rd 2018.
Please note that these audit results came in 2 ½ months after the audit.
That timeline will become integral, and in my opinion clearly demonstrate clear breaches of Administrative Law, Natural Justice, and Procedural Fairness.
This post will also highlight significant deficiencies in the ICC process.
03/09/18. CASA visit Latrobe Valley (one of our bases). CASA identify minor anomalies only with the exam. We are told a written report will follow. CASA procedures require this. Those procedures all identify that “no new items” should be raised in the written report that follows, if they were not identified on the day i.e. no unexpected surprises.
16/11/18. I attended the CASA office. The Regional Manager began giving me a verbal debrief summary of Latrobe Valley Aerodrome audit results. This time he raised completely new concerns. These were inaccurate claims and different to what I had previously been informed. It was then identified by the Regional Manager that in fact an audit report had not been completed, and he would get it to me by the following Tuesday, which he did.
For clarity. We had an audit conducted on 03/09/18, then on 16/11/18 it is identified by CASA that an audit report was not done, and that it would be.
A few days later on the 20/11/18 the newly “minted” audit results have been prepared over the weekend and now arrive.
Recall, that these are now being written more than two months after the audit. Surprisingly the Regional Manager advises me in the accompanying email, that the Latrobe Valley audit results were “used as the basis of seeking CASA legal advice”. Well that leads me to some obvious questions.
If the Regional Manager admits that audit results were not produced until after our meeting on 16/11/18 (Friday), he writes to me on the following Tuesday stating they were “used as the basis of seeking CASA legal advice”. The legal department couldn’t possibly have used the audit results because they had not been created yet!!!!!!
That statement cannot possibly be truthful!
Interestingly, these newly minted audit results have allegations of breaches of
· CASR 141.310 (1),(5), and (6)
· CASR 142.390 (1),(5), and (6)
· CASR 117· CASR 141.260 (g)
· CASR 142.340 (g)
The ICC seemed to brush these matters aside. I specifically identified to the ICC that CASA made allegations of regulatory breaches and the Regional Manager required me to respond. I will contain excerpts of associated emails. The point of these emails is that they clearly demonstrate I was required to respond to an allegation of a regulatory breach as I am.
“Good afternoon Glen,
Please excuse me for any confusion that you may have, but CASA is waiting for you to reply to those matters that were provided in my email to you dated 20th Nov 18 (copy attached again for your reference)
At the meeting with Mr Peter White - CASA Executive Manager Regulatory Services and Surveillance on Friday 16th November 18, it was established that I would provide you the feedback from the CASA assessment of the Latrobe Valley training base, and it was further agreed that this assessment information would be reviewed by yourself, and that you would provide your response to all of the issues identified. Once we received your response, we would resubmit the information to our CASA legal team for a second review ………….
Then again from the Regional Manager a few days later;
“Hi Glen,
This is just a follow-up email requesting your assistance to provide CASA a reply to the information I supplied you last Tuesday 20th November 18 (please see attached).
May I please seek some assurance that you will be able to provide CASA your feedback against the Latrobe Valley Aero Club training base inspection results, in a timely manner. It is respectfully requested that you provide this feedback to CASA by close-of-business on Tuesday 4th December 18, as this equates to a period of 14-days since the information was sent to you.
As you will recall, it was agreed at the 4th December 18 meeting between APTA and CASA that following the receipt of your reply to the Latrobe Valley Aero Club inspection information, we would request another review of the relevant information by the CASA legal team to ascertain if there is any change against the original determination that APTA is a franchised arrangement. I look forward to your reply.
Kind regards,
Those above emails clearly indicate that I am clearly required to respond to the allegations of regulatory breaches.
I will clearly indicate in following posts how the Regional Manager ignored and frustrated my attempts to resolve these issues over many months,
The reason. The allegations were not correct, and to this day after more than 9 months despite over 30 requests for assistance which I will document, CASA cannot support or justify any of the new allegations that arose. Furthermore and interestingly the notes provided on the audit were not dated. It was almost as though CASA was trying to hide this clear breach of administrative law.
28/11/18 the Regional Manager writes “ a level 2 surveillance event was created in our system”, yet the ICC says in his Preliminary report dated 12/04/19 “theres no record of the documents I would expect to see if a Level 2 had been commenced in CASAs Sky Sentinel surveillance databaseLater, CASA tried to reverse the position and called it a surveillance event rather than an audt. The ICC claims that it was a surveillance event, and that’s why he chose to avoid addressing my complaint in my final ICC report.
My point, the changing terminology for the event is irrelevant. My complaint was not about the terminology used, it was clearly about CASA frustrating my attempts at a resolution, and prolonging the impact of the damage caused by CASA actions.Overall, an audit or “event” that is surrounded by significant, repeated, and sustained breaches of procedures. Why? Because the named personnel in CASA made a decision to act this way. Its not an error or an omission. It is a deliberate attempt to frustrate fair processes.