ramble:
This action by CASA stinks like it has originated from the moron in CASA that was responsible for the new "paperwork reducing" annual 8 page medical questionnaire that has most AMEs in this country and others rolling their eyes in disgust and dismay.
Have YOU had any "funny turns"?
Strewth...pillocks.
For a classic example of Avmed steam driven efficiency at work..
..go no further than this recent 'merit review decision' by the (soon to be redundant..
) OAIC:
Barnes and Civil Aviation Safety Authority [2014] AICmr 53 (3 June 2014)
Hmm...it seems that Herr Skull couldn't swing any of the $89.9 million bucket over to the PMO's crew to buy a couple of PCs and hire some pimply faced IT nerd to scan/data entry all the flight crew files to an electronic database.
8. Following an exchange of emails about the second part of the request, on 8 February 2013, CASA advised Mr Barnes that three boxes of files had been retrieved from archives, which comprised of approximately 3,000 pages of information. CASA advised Mr Barnes that ‘searching for the Form 162 documents … would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of CASA from its operations.’ CASA
26. The consultation notice issued on 22 March 2013, stated that CASA does not keep individual records of Medical Certificate payments and that its records system is adequate ‘to the nature of the documents’. CASA said that the filing system for the storage of the Medical Certificates:
Has resulted in 3 boxes of files totalling approximately 3000 pages of documents … searching for the Form 162 documents through these pages of documents would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of CASA from its operations.
If the forms are not located in these 3 boxes, then CASA will need to conduct further searches to identify other boxes which may contain the relevant forms. CASA stores forms such as the form 162 according to the date on which it is received. CASA received large amounts of such forms and other documents which are collated in batches and stored by reference to the date on which they were received.
… a practical refusal reason exists … because:
(a) The work involved in processing the request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations due to the large volume of documents that would need to be searched to locate the documents which are the subject of your request; and
(b) The administrative burden associated with your request is unreasonable having regard to the fact that you could be expected to have an independent record of the credit card payments made by you to CASA on your credit card statement.
Hmm...maybe Herr Skull should also consider swinging some of the bucket money to Flying Fiend so he can hire a full time FOI lackey/research officer, certainly sounds like he needs some help...
28. CASA says that the filing system its uses for the storage of Medical Certificates consist of ‘bulk batches’ in which those documents are stored in approximate date order. CASA originally identified three boxes of documents covering the date ranges specified in Mr Barnes’s request. CASA did not explain what was involved in identifying and retrieving those boxes or how much time it thought would be needed to search those boxes for the relevant documents. During the course of the IC review, CASA undertook searches of seven boxes and said that this task took approximately ’12 hours’. CASA did not provide any additional information to indicate the time and resources it expected would be required to process the request.8
As highlighted in many of the 269 ASRR submissions, is it any wonder that there is major delays on pilot medical renewals, the poor buggers at Avmed (& subsequently the FOI duo) are still scrabbling around with paper...FFS
MTF...
Ps Maybe there lies the solution BS, JO & CVD crew...just set fire to the basement of Fort Fumble..problem solved!
