Strategic Airlines
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Brisbane
Age: 68
Posts: 227
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I guess SA will be tightening the belt after their last ADF charter next week. Risky strategy putting most eggs in one basket with RPT to Bali. Another terrorist attack and the place shuts down again and even without such an event the number of seats on the routes are way to excessive and it will be the big boys who will fare best in a price war
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: In a barrel at Niagara
Posts: 31
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sydney Morning Herald - Article
Smith stands by Defence air contract
November 16, 2010 - 10:39PM
AAP
Defence Minister Stephen Smith has defended an air services contract questioned by the coalition.
Opposition defence spokesman David Johnston on Monday accused the department of allowing a company that didn't own any planes, employed only a very small number of Australians and used a charter operator without the appropriate transport licence to ferry Australian soldiers around the Middle East.
Mr Smith rejected the claims on Tuesday, saying he had been told there would not be a significant loss of Australian-based jobs in the transition from Strategic Aviation to Adagold, a broker which uses Portuguese-based company HiFly as its air operator.
Advertisement: Story continues below
"Tenders for provision of services to the Australian Government or the Department of Defence are determined on the basis of value to the taxpayers' dollars, not just on the basis of local employment," he added.
Mr Smith said HiFly had all the appropriate certification for carrying Defence Force personnel, before defending the final cost of a Deloitte review of the contract which totalled $597,000.
"Deloitte was cognisant of Defence's desire to complete their review as expeditiously as possible," he said.
"Deloitte deployed a large team, which included a significant number of partners and directors, to undertake the review.
"Their fee represented virtually 1,000 direct man hours of effort and significant on-costs."
Mr Smith said he felt the reviews were justified.
AAP
Defence Minister Stephen Smith has defended an air services contract questioned by the coalition.
Opposition defence spokesman David Johnston on Monday accused the department of allowing a company that didn't own any planes, employed only a very small number of Australians and used a charter operator without the appropriate transport licence to ferry Australian soldiers around the Middle East.
Mr Smith rejected the claims on Tuesday, saying he had been told there would not be a significant loss of Australian-based jobs in the transition from Strategic Aviation to Adagold, a broker which uses Portuguese-based company HiFly as its air operator.
Advertisement: Story continues below
"Tenders for provision of services to the Australian Government or the Department of Defence are determined on the basis of value to the taxpayers' dollars, not just on the basis of local employment," he added.
Mr Smith said HiFly had all the appropriate certification for carrying Defence Force personnel, before defending the final cost of a Deloitte review of the contract which totalled $597,000.
"Deloitte was cognisant of Defence's desire to complete their review as expeditiously as possible," he said.
"Deloitte deployed a large team, which included a significant number of partners and directors, to undertake the review.
"Their fee represented virtually 1,000 direct man hours of effort and significant on-costs."
Mr Smith said he felt the reviews were justified.
So are any pilots jumping ship from SA?
Although, I would think SA will need its A330 guys for all their Thailand routes??
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Oz
Posts: 45
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Age Article
Defence accused of covering up $90m contract row
Dan Oakes
November 17, 2010
THE Defence force has been accused of ordering an ''expensive whitewash'' to cover up allegations of impropriety in the awarding of a $90 million contract for transporting Australian troops overseas.
The accusation was made after it emerged that auditors hired by Defence to probe the contract were unable to interview any of the tenderers or the official at the centre of the row.
Auditors at Deloitte were paid $600,000 to review the contract to transport troops to the Middle East after unsuccessful bidders complained that a Defence official, David Charlton, had passed information to the preferred tenderer, aviation charter company Adagold.
Earlier audits by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Defence found no impropriety. But after opposition defence spokesman David Johnston raised more concerns, Defence asked Deloitte to conduct a third audit.
Senator Johnston yesterday called the Deloitte audit an ''incredibly expensive whitewash''. He said the firm had run ''what should have been a very important inquiry into a number of very serious allegations … effectively with one hand tied behind their back''.
''For close to $100,000 a day the auditor barely looked under his mouse pad. The result is as predictable as night follows day. Of course it didn't find any evidence of mismanagement or corruption because they weren't allowed to look for it, and the taxpayers who paid for this audit have a right to know why.''
The Deloitte report found Mr Charlton, who admitted advising Adagold on its bid for the contract, had no influence over the tender process.
However, the report, seen by The Age, makes it clear that the auditors were forced to rely on transcripts of interviews conducted by ''others'', did not interview Mr Charlton or any of the tenderers, and did not verify information obtained from interviews or tenderers.
''We believe that the statements made in this report are accurate, but no warranty of completeness, accuracy or reliability is given in relation to the statement and representations made by, and the information and documents provided by Defence personnel,'' the report says. ''We have not attempted to independently verify these sources.''
Defence has referred its 2005 Middle East flight tender to police after The Age revealed that Mr Charlton and another official gave inside information to the winning firm, Strategic Aviation, before joining it in senior management roles.
The Deloitte audit also dismissed concerns about a South African company founded by Adagold's owner, Mark Clark, involving Defence contracts in that country, noting South African courts found no evidence of corruption.
The Age has also reported complaints by rival firms about Adagold's near monopoly on asylum-seeker transport contracts. Adagold won 52 of 56 Immigration Department flight contracts, worth a total of $6.49 million, between June last year and March 31.
I hope they're not jumping 'cause they might be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire!
Dan Oakes
November 17, 2010
THE Defence force has been accused of ordering an ''expensive whitewash'' to cover up allegations of impropriety in the awarding of a $90 million contract for transporting Australian troops overseas.
The accusation was made after it emerged that auditors hired by Defence to probe the contract were unable to interview any of the tenderers or the official at the centre of the row.
Auditors at Deloitte were paid $600,000 to review the contract to transport troops to the Middle East after unsuccessful bidders complained that a Defence official, David Charlton, had passed information to the preferred tenderer, aviation charter company Adagold.
Earlier audits by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Defence found no impropriety. But after opposition defence spokesman David Johnston raised more concerns, Defence asked Deloitte to conduct a third audit.
Senator Johnston yesterday called the Deloitte audit an ''incredibly expensive whitewash''. He said the firm had run ''what should have been a very important inquiry into a number of very serious allegations … effectively with one hand tied behind their back''.
''For close to $100,000 a day the auditor barely looked under his mouse pad. The result is as predictable as night follows day. Of course it didn't find any evidence of mismanagement or corruption because they weren't allowed to look for it, and the taxpayers who paid for this audit have a right to know why.''
The Deloitte report found Mr Charlton, who admitted advising Adagold on its bid for the contract, had no influence over the tender process.
However, the report, seen by The Age, makes it clear that the auditors were forced to rely on transcripts of interviews conducted by ''others'', did not interview Mr Charlton or any of the tenderers, and did not verify information obtained from interviews or tenderers.
''We believe that the statements made in this report are accurate, but no warranty of completeness, accuracy or reliability is given in relation to the statement and representations made by, and the information and documents provided by Defence personnel,'' the report says. ''We have not attempted to independently verify these sources.''
Defence has referred its 2005 Middle East flight tender to police after The Age revealed that Mr Charlton and another official gave inside information to the winning firm, Strategic Aviation, before joining it in senior management roles.
The Deloitte audit also dismissed concerns about a South African company founded by Adagold's owner, Mark Clark, involving Defence contracts in that country, noting South African courts found no evidence of corruption.
The Age has also reported complaints by rival firms about Adagold's near monopoly on asylum-seeker transport contracts. Adagold won 52 of 56 Immigration Department flight contracts, worth a total of $6.49 million, between June last year and March 31.
I hope they're not jumping 'cause they might be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire!
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 28
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Well it's good to see the Strategic Marketing or policy machine or whatever you want to call it is still fighting....
Can't guess which side keeps feeding the media over all of this....
Unfortunately they just don't get how much damage all this would be doing to their relationship with Defence and other government departments...
Sorry to say it boys, the game is almost over.... Just start watching the rats abandon the sinking ship especially the CEO, he has done it twice already at European Aviation and then Ozjet.....
Also, it looks like the move to Brisbane is correct as all positions that were in the Strategic Melbourne Office are now being advertised on their website as Brisbane positions.
I wonder if the Melbourne Based Director has also left the business as he would never have let the entire Melbourne Operation Be Shut Down.
Can't guess which side keeps feeding the media over all of this....
Unfortunately they just don't get how much damage all this would be doing to their relationship with Defence and other government departments...
Sorry to say it boys, the game is almost over.... Just start watching the rats abandon the sinking ship especially the CEO, he has done it twice already at European Aviation and then Ozjet.....
Also, it looks like the move to Brisbane is correct as all positions that were in the Strategic Melbourne Office are now being advertised on their website as Brisbane positions.
I wonder if the Melbourne Based Director has also left the business as he would never have let the entire Melbourne Operation Be Shut Down.
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: new zealand
Posts: 112
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yet another breakdown on the Solomons service, this time with the aircraft stuck in Honiara. I guess I'll fly home (Brisbane) on Our Airline tomorrow like I did recently. This will be the third time, at least, in recent times where Strategic have failed - thank goodness for some competition out here, if it was totally reliant on Strategic to come and go from Honiara things would be pretty desperate.
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: australia
Posts: 396
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
All three are out and about working aok.
So why was another operator called in with around 4 hours notice to operate a Christmas Island charter that Strategic couldn't - one that they had already been awarded?
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Brisbane
Age: 68
Posts: 227
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Our Airline asked again today to do Strategic's Solomons flying due to SA u/s. Couldn't help however as they were too busy doing their immigration charters so obviously they aren't all out and about working
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Oz
Posts: 45
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
This could be the reason - too busy? ........
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/181025/
Checkin out the route map in this report it looks like a pretty full on network for just 3 machines. Doesnt even show the Honiara stuff.??
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/181025/
Checkin out the route map in this report it looks like a pretty full on network for just 3 machines. Doesnt even show the Honiara stuff.??