“Safety is an underlying imperative of international civil air transport. For all those in the business of aviation safety, everything stems from this basic principle”. That was part of the message given by Colonel Jawahar Persaud, Director of Finance and Administration, to participants of the State Safety Programme/Safety Management Systems (SSP/SMS) workshop, which started on July 10, 2017, at the Grand Coastal Inn. Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is hosting the event for stakeholders within the aviation sector to develop a SSP/SMS in accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
Colonel Persaud noted that for years, “the preferred method was pursuing safety by chasing the last accident and by finding regulatory solutions to specific technical problems”.
However, that approach has changed, thanks to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, which conducts safety oversight audits under a comprehensive systems approach. In 2007, Guyana scored 44.1 percent of the achievable 100 percent for effective implementation of standards following a full Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA) audit conducted by the ICAO. However, a recent audit conducted by ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission determined that Guyana’s Effective Implementation has improved to 64.5 percent.
The Government of Guyana has shown its commitment to the implementation of the SSP by allocating $24 million in 2017 specifically for the implementation of the State Safety Programme. The agreed definitions and level of safety standards during the delivery of service will be determined during the five-day workshop.
In declaring the workshop open, Colonel Persaud noted that the Safety Management System is the “gateway to building confidence in the actual operational performance of an SMS and goes beyond the simple ‘ticking of boxes’”.
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