Govt nominees may seek Air India appointments’ ratification

The controversy over high-profile appointments at Air India just refuses to die down.

According to official sources, the government nominees on the airline board are expected to insist on these appointments eing ratified by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) or at least by the civil aviation minister.

But is it possible to get these appointments ratified in retrospect? This remains to be seen.

On Thursday, official sources said that the proposal to appoint a COO for Air India Express, chief of training and chief information officer for AI was consistently opposed by government nominees on the airline board in previous meetings. Independent directors have already voiced their objections to these appointments, with the first two having been made at salaries of over Rs1 crore per annum.

What is the objection of government nominees to these appointments? “Appointments above the joint secretary level and on a certain pay scale should necessarily be cleared by the ACC. The two government
nominees on AI board opposed these appointments since they were neither cleared by the ACC nor by the civil aviation minister.
Another director in the ministry looking after Air India also wrote separately to the airline asserting that the ACC should clear these appointments. But the board, in its wisdom, went ahead with the appointments anyway.”
In the agenda circulated for the board meeting on the November 18, there is no mention of these appointments as one of the items to be discussed - at least till now.

Sources said the government nominees would insist on putting AI COO’s appointment as one of the items on the agenda.

“EK Bharatbhushan (one of the government nominees) objected to these appointments on the basis of salaries, this proposal was opposed in the strategic committee meeting. Then, another director on the board wrote to the airline asking it to follow proper procedures for approvals. Yet another director looking after Air India in the ministry of civil aviation wrote to AI asking it to get ACC approval.”

The appointments have already kicked up a storm on objections pertaining to the safety record of AI COO Pawan Arora - charges that the airline management is now preparing to defend.

Sources said that apart from the appointment issue, other matters such as a comprehensive sports policy for the airline, financial results of the first half of the fiscal, convening of the annual general meeting etc are the other items on the agenda for the board meeting, slated for the November 18 in Delhi.