No audited Winair report,
Parliament still sceptical
PHILIPSBURG--The last word hasn’t been spoken in Parliament about the Windward Islands International Airways Winair situation. Acting President of Parliament PAR Parliamentarian Pedro Atacho said just before closing yesterday’s Central Committee meeting on the airline that more meetings on Winair would follow in Parliament.
“Time will tell,” WIPM Member of Parliament Ray Hassell said after the meeting, indicating that he wasn’t impressed with what shareholder’s representative Minister Roland Duncan, Winair management and the Winair board of directors had to say.
Especially pertaining to the financial figures of the company Parliament wasn’t too impressed with what was presented.
Managing Director Edwin Hodge said that since 2003, when he came into office, Winair had managed to close off a moratorium it had on payment of debts. He couldn’t give any details of the time before he came into office, but spoke about a financial mess at the company.
Hodge said that debts to the pension funds of the workers and pilots had been cancelled since 2003, Winair had been able to pay all social premiums, the liquidity position had improved and operational losses had decreased from NAf. 5.9 million a year in 2003 to 1.8 million in 2005.
However, the Members of Parliament weren’t impressed with these figures, pointing out that the latest audited figures of Winair were from 2004 and the accountant had given a negative advice, stating that it could not be said for sure that the figures could be trusted.
However, for Government to give Winair any money it has to produce audited figures, which the company hasn’t been able to do, PAR Member of Parliament Pedro Atacho said.
According to him, that’s the reason why Winair hasn’t received the last NAf. 500,000 payment of a NAf. 3 million capital injection the Central Government had promised. Finance Minister Ersilia de Lannooy has refused to pay the rest of the money because Winair hasn’t been able to present audited figures.
Duncan said he believed Government should look at this situation reasonably. He said it didn’t make too much sense to let Winair pay NAf. 150,000 to receive NAf. 500,000. He warned against too much auditing, indicating that auditing of audited figures had taken place in the past.
Directly linked with the financial situation of the company are the negotiations taking place for a new Collective Labour Agreement (CLA). Hodge said Winair wasn’t in a position to offer higher salaries.
The pilots and the maintenance department have high turnover, but for Winair to pay higher salaries it has to produce more money. “For the company to raise its salaries it has to either raise its fares or, as a Government-owned company, the Central Government has to subsidise the increase in salaries,” he said.
The low salaries are the reason Winair has been employing many Canadian pilots. Finding pilots in Canada has been easy because of the business relations with the Canadian “Unity Group,” which has signed a lease and buy-back agreement for all the Winair airplanes.
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