INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF CASA
 

Not too much publicity and I can only find two OT references to it here but the audit by ANAO of CASA makes very interesting reading, particularly the cavalier response from CASA.

Rather than the ICAO USOAP "snap shot" ANAO took a long term and much deeper look at how CASA actually performs against their own rules and common application of audit principles and, despite their gentle/governmentspeak language found the organization severely lacking. Anyone with even a small understanding of risk will be appalled by reading the finding at paragraph 2.49 post.
Auditor-General Report No. 28 2021–22 Performance Audit.

Gne

https://www.australianflying.com.au/...ecommendations


Here is a link…https://www.anao.gov.au/work/perform...nce-activities

I could not find a para 49. Can you be more specific?

Apologies - missed the typo which has been fixed. Should have been 2.49.

Gne

I must be missing something.

Perhaps you went to a different school of referencing, I was taught " paragraph 2.49 post." meant "paragraph 2.49 and the following paragraphs. " or "from paragraph 2.49" . Just as the likelihood of risk is part of the complete understanding, so is the context of the ANAO finding.


Gne

CASA needs more than an audit.

The risk management equation for planning: Annual potential cost to Community = Assessed maximum cost of individual accident X Probability of that accident.
’
What CASA has been using for planning : Annualised potential loss to Community = Cost of individual accident.

By ignoring probability, CASA is giving itself permission to be lazy and focus on the easy stuff that lawyers with limited technical experience can understand instead of focussing on the real dangers to the community which requires deep technical knowledge and honesty.

Example: Which issue has the potential to cost the community more?

(a) Constructing buildings that infringe on established runway clearances.

(b) A private pilot making a mistake in writing up her logbook.

‘Guess which issue attracts detailed prescriptive regulations and a strict liability criminal penalty?

On 30 June ICAO published the schedule for USOAP audits in 2023. Australia is scheduled for a State Safety Plan Implementation Audit followed by a "focused" Audit in September.

Hopefully the ICAO team will have read the ANAO report and be well prepared to look closely at the real inner working of our national safety oversight regulator. Is there sufficient time between now and the arrival of the ICAO team for CASA to get its house in order, assuming there's a will to do that.

Gne

ICAO is a division of the U.N. Both are toothless tigers.
There will be the usual morning meetings to decide to have afternoon meetings, licencing standards (the more complex the better, so we will get a big tick in the box there), a look at how records are maintained (not good, but a standard way to pass close scrutiny on an audit is give the auditors something relatively harmless to get their teeth into), training programs (some boring videos to watch), enforcement (we are good at prosecuting pissant cases, so they will like that), where CASA rules differ from ICAO recommendations (so what - the air is different down here), and lots of long lunches.
The worst ICAO can ever do is downgrade a country to confine its aviation activities to within borders, and Australia has a long way to descend to the level of a few places where that has happened (like Sierra Leone). CASA will baffle ICAO with bullsh!t.

Mach nails it.

ICAO is a bureaucracy. 'nuff said.

The muppets from Montreal are just as big a joke as CASA are. Another bunch of bureaucrats who are punching above their weight and thinking that what they contribute to aviation globally is actually worth a pint of panther piss. Little do they know. ICAO audits are limited in scope and usually focus on minor details. The toughest thing that they will ever do is write a letter to CASA asking them to fix something. That’s it. How scary. Tautological nonsense.

The ANAO are also limited in scope, and they too only brush over part of the surface. In any case, their focus is on the mighty $$$$$ - how it’s being spent and if it complies with the PGPA. Again, a token task that at its best will result in a slap on the wrist with a wet lettuce leaf.

The CASArites will be busy brooming things under the carpet, doing a little tidy up, trying to tie of loose ends from previous audits, and all getting chubbies because the almighty and lauded ICAO are in town. Whatever. It’s all a load of well rehearsed ****e. All that these idiots will do is walk around in circles sniffing each other’s asses. Nothing will be achieved.

Para you put it so elegantly. Did you once work there too?

My aviation career has seen me work for or with numerous corporations, airlines and entities, hence my critique. I’ve flown from the front and I’ve also managed aviation interests. Bureaucracies such as ICAO, the UN, little old CASA, they are all one and the same. They are filled with wordsmiths and turd polishers and they wouldn’t know the pointy end of a plane from a bad case of crotch rot. They promulgate theories developed and espoused by idiots like J. Aleck. Narcissistic and egotistical fools that like to sit around mahogany desks (when not congregating in giant amphitheatres listening to each other dribbling sh#t) writing legal jargon into regulations and creating glossy brochures to dazzle the onlooker. These people spend the rest of their time sipping herbal tea and eating kale sandwiches while living in their own parallel universe and sucking off the taxpayer teat. Yes, they actually believe their own sh#t doesn’t stink! I’ve seen them in action and I know how the system works, and they are full of piss and wind.

The ICAO audit is laughable as the outcomes are known before they even land here. They will spend their time concentrating on diplomacy and using language that pleases the Australian government. Their audit scope will be smaller than a a postage stamp. Anyone putting hope in ICAO or ANAO audits making one iota of difference to the way CASA operates might as well buy some dairy dust and sparkling slippers. Keep dreaming…

Para, I hear you. I “worked” (quotation marks intended) for CASA for about a year. It was just like that wonderful Pommy TV series ‘Yes Minister’.

C'mon....
​​​​​​It's a safety audit and Australia is one of the safer places to fly overall.
it's not an audit on accountability, integrity, or efficient/forward thinking use of taxpayer dollars. Having a licence that is thirty something pages long instead of a credit card sized one and then threatening to prosecute those who fly without carrying the twelve or so 'this page is intentionally left blank' pages, or any similar carry on, will not be picked up.