Briefing

“United Nations Aviation Transportation Procurement: the issue of Safety and Security”

by H.E. Yuriy Sergeyev

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN

(New York, 1 May, 2013)

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for coming to our meeting.

Today we are going to share with you our experience, our views and our concerns on the issue of Safety and Security in the policy and practice of the United Nations Aviation Transportation Procurement.  Particularly we will focus on the issue of helicopters procurement.

Ukrainian helicopters are in the business of UN chartering since long ago operating in the majority of the United Nations missions.

The purpose of convening this briefing is based on our concern that UN system for the last year is dangerously decreasing its attention to the safety and security in the area of the helicopters procurement. It explains why some of the basic principles of safety and security are not stipulated as mandatory in the recent UN documents.

         Unfortunately this situation contradicts the position of the Secretary General, who in his report “UN air operations” (document A/65/738) has stated that: “… flight safety will not be compromised”. But two years later after this statement was made we observe that the safety and security in the area of the helicopter procurement are indeed compromised.

I am confident that not only my Mission, but other missions as well noticed a sad omission of mentioning of the safety and security principles for the air transportation procurement in the report of the Secretary General “UN Procurement activity” issued on 26 December 2012 as a document A/67/683.  This document was supposed to be discussed within this session of the 5th Committee within the current session but was postponed for the 68th Session of GA.

I hope that during next session debates all permanent missions to the UN will revise their position on the abovementioned report.

As you might remember we were informed in March 2013 about the tragic accident with one of the member states commercial helicopters operating in the UN Mission in Congo, causing deaths of the crew. As it became public later, that the crash was caused also by the absence of the necessary navigation equipment - namely Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS).

As the reaction to this tragedy the Aviation Quality Assurance Unit of DFS (signed by Mr. Christian Gregoire) circulated a message, and I quote:

"In the light of the recent tragic …  accident in MONUSCO and in line with DFS Aviation Quality Assurance Program, designed and implemented to benefit aviation safety, contract management and mitigate risk in DFS/DPKO air transport operations, ATS will shortly amend all contracts Terms and Conditions to make the EGPWS mandatory equipment on board all UN operated aircraft'.

Aviation section of UN Mission in Congo explained the necessity of EGPWS installation to substitute traditional ground proximity warning system by the following arguments:

“Traditional GPWS can only monitor the ground directly beneath it. This can be a problem if there is a very sudden change in the terrain and the GPWS cannot provide a prompt enough warning for the pilot to react to. With EGPWS, the system can track the course of the aircraft and see if it is heading towards a mountain or other similar threat.  ”

UN aviation officials in the fields took this instruction seriously and communicated them to operators demanding their earliest fulfillment.        All Ukrainian operators supported this appeal by launching the installation of EGPWS.

But unfortunately on 12 April operators got another instruction from UN Procurement Division signed by Mr. Sean Purcell saying that "as advised by the UN DFS, the installation of EGWS on the aircraft would be advantage but it is not mandatory requirement at this juncture".

This last instruction paralyzed the process of installation of the mentioned equipment.

As you can see, within one month UN Secretariat produced two mutually exclusive instructions, bringing the ambiguity and uncertainty on this issue.

That is why I have sent a letter to the Secretary General on April 15, 2013 raising a simple question - which one of these two instructions reflects UN priorities? 

All of us need clear answer - when the helicopters chartered on our expense will be adequately equipped to minimize flight risks. What does it mean in concrete calendar dates that “ATS will shortly amend all contracts Terms and Conditions to make the EGPWS mandatory equipment on board of  all UN operated aircraft'.”

With such unfortunate UN aviation transportation procurement management in the nearest future the overwhelming majority of the UN contracted helicopters will operate without vitally important equipment bringing the risks for the consumers of the helicopter services - our peacekeepers, UN personnel and local population.

I have invited you today to share with you what we know in order to let you know.

What Ukraine is going to do in these circumstances?

Primarily, Ukrainian helicopter operators, despite the negligence of the Secretariat, will finalize the installation of the demanded equipment for the sake of the safety and security.

Secondly, we will inform our nationals in the field that usage of the services of unequipped aircrafts – is on their own risk.

Thirdly we will continue our monitoring together with member states partners of the UN aviation procurement and will keep you informed on the further developments. This briefing is the first one in a row of our next follow-ups.

Finally, if our concerns are well understood I invite you all to join our demand to the Secretariat to fully implement in a visible scheduled future the recommendations of DFS Aviation Quality Assurance Programme declaring mandatory installation of the EGPWS equipment. We also demand the convening of the meeting, no later than July 1, 2013, of all helicopter operators in order to inform them about exact UN aviation transportation procurement standards based on the undeniable priority of the flight safety and security.

Thank you for your attention.