[Peetwo]

Meanwhile in the Empire of the RAeS -

Quote from "K" off the minister's thread:

Willyleaks exclusive.

At great personal risk, the intrepid GD has managed to get a peep at the minister for transport personal diary:-

Dear diary.

What a lovely day I’ve had.  It was easy away from my office, the team were coping well with some minor, non essential transport issues but still managed to get my driver and new car to the front door, so I could wave and smile at the press gallery, such nice folk.  

Memo 1– speak to the parking people about all those derelict, burned out trucks parked on the lawn and in the drive way; bloody vandals.  I shall speak sternly to our parking attendants, never too early to show them who’s boss.

Anyway, my mission today was to visit the lovely boys and girls in the air traffic control tower at Melbourne’s big airport.  

Of course I couldn’t disturb them, but I did ask one if the thing on the runway was – in fact – an aeroplane.  So nice to see one in real life; the response I drew from the ‘ATCO’ (new word for the dictionary) was a nod and a terse “Yup”, he was a pale, pallid, tired looking thing, about 60 y.o with a definite twitch in his right eye.  I strolled back to my minder: “that man looks dreadful, I expect he’ll be retiring soon”, I said.  “Oh no Sir” said the minder, “that is Charlie he’s only 25 and a senior trainer, valuable asset indeed”.  Must be the night shift look I thought.

Well my visit was short but sweet, I did get a photo opportunity which was great and as they were all so busy I didn’t get to speak to any of the troops about how things are; which was good as I would have been late for my hair dresser (big No No).  Anyway, I am assured by that nice fellah in the electric blue uniform that all is well and another $150 billion dollars will keep things ticking over nicely.  Great system, wonderful folks, terrific day.

Home for tea and cake by 4 pm.  What a productive day, it’s so great to be ‘the minister’.

MTF – Oh, you can bet on it.

Toot toot.

All in a day's work for our intrepid minister...

Meanwhile over in the bureaucratic, trough dwelling, evil Empire of the RAeS there apparently is "nothing to see here..move along", from 'that man' via the Oz :

Harry Bradford defends ICCPM’s Airservices contract

• Ean Higgins
  
• The Australian
  
• April 1, 2016 12:00AM
  
  

The former RAAF test pilot dubbed the “Million Dollar Man” by Airservices Australia dissidents has hit out at his critics, denying any conflict of interest in a lucrative Airservices contract he secured.

Harry Bradford, the chairman of the International Centre for Complex Project Management, has broken his silence on Airservices’ consultancy arrangements, which a Senate committee hearing suggested appeared to contain conflicts of interest.

The dealings are under investigation by the Australian National Audit Office, which is due to table its report in May.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Mr Bradford said senators who made the accusations were wrong, and that he and other consultants in ICCPM had adhered to the highest ethical standards.

The Audit Office late last year launched an investigation into Airservices consultancy contracts awarded to ICCPM for the $1.5 billion OneSKY air traffic control and navigation project, which will integrate military and civilian airspace management by 2021.

The move followed criticism in Senate rural and regional affairs and transport legislation committee hearings of what senators claimed were possible conflicts of interest. The committee heard that Mr Bradford, who was then a director of ICCPM, had received $1 million to act as lead negotiator on Airservices’ behalf in its dealings with Thales, the international aerospace company that has the lead contract for OneSKY.

Senators expressed incredulity that Airservices had hired Mr Bradford to perform this role when the managing director of Thales Australia, Chris Jenkins, was also the chairman of ICCPM, and alleged a possible conflict of interest.

The committee chairman, Liberal Bill Heffernan, said the dealings between Airservices and ICCPM would “not pass the public test … it sounds dodgy”.

“I had one duty to Airservices Australia. I had another duty to the ICCPM board,” Mr Bradford told The Australian. “There was no conflict between those duties.”

Sources within Airservices have told The Australian there is considerable anger within sections of staff over the huge sums paid to consultants, and the fact that so many key figures in the OneSKY project have had connections with ICCPM.

Airservices last month appointed a senior figure in the Department of Defence, Air Vice Marshal Chris Deeble, who was until recently a director and fellow of ICCPM, to head the One­SKY project.

As revealed by The Australian, there is also discontent in Airservices circles over the fact that some executives made trips to the Paris headquarters of Thales, when Thales has a large operation with more than 3000 employees in Australia to service clients locally.

Asked about his $1m consultancy fee, which covered a period of about 18 months, Mr Bradford said: “I don’t worry about these issues — I set my fees and if people want to engage me they can, and if they don’t want to, they don’t.”

The Senate committee also heard that ICCPM managing director Deborah Hein is the wife of Steve Hein, who worked for ICCPM until hired by Airservices in a senior managerial role. One contract Airservices struck with ICCPM was processed by Mr Hein.

Mr Bradford said all those involved in ICCPM had upheld the highest propriety and denied there had been any conflict of interest in any of its contracts with Airservices, which have been completed.

Mr Bradford had a distinguished air force career, including flying 270 combat missions as a bomber pilot in Vietnam, and as an instructor and test pilot, and was awarded the Air Force Cross.

He was for a period a colleague of then fellow RAAF officer Angus Houston, now the chairman of Airservices.

After leaving the RAAF Mr Bradford worked in a variety of senior management roles in aerospace, including for Hawker de Havilland, British Aerospace and BAE Systems Australia. He was one of the founders of ICCPM when it was established in 2007.

Mr Bradford said ICCPM was initially set up with the support of military organisations and aerospace groups including the Department of Defence, BAE Systems and Thales, as an “altruistic” non-profit organisation to help address problems which could lead major complex projects to go wrong.

Mr Bradford said reasons big projects went astray included cases where “requirements are not well established and stable, there is an underappreciation of technical risk, and underappreciation of the criticality of a high-performing team and all the human factors that go with that”.

“The thing that goes wrong more than anything else is putting the wrong people in the key positions,” he said.

Mr Bradford said while ICCPM was designed to extend knowledge about project management, it quickly became apparent that to fund itself, it would have to do consultancy work.

Hmm...the Thales conglomerate seems to have their sticky fingers stuck in a lot of murky (read corrupt) pies, there is even a possible link to the Malaysian PM Najib..

A case involving allegations of high-level bribery, blackmail, betrayal and the murder of a glamorous Mongolian socialite in Malaysia has resurfaced in France, only days after Malaysia's prime minister Najib Razak was cleared of corruption charges at home.

French prosecutors have charged a French businessman involved in Malaysia's $US2 billion ($2.8 billion) purchase of two French-Spanish built submarines with paying illegal kickbacks to a Malaysian official linked to Mr Najib, according to the French newsagency AFP.


Mr Najib, who was defence minister at the time of the purchase, has denied any wrongdoing but the case has been the subject of hot rumours and speculation in Malaysia's social media during his seven-year rule.


The French report named Ferrari-driving Malaysian businessman Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Mr Najib's best friends and policy advisers, as the person who allegedly received the kickbacks.



While the submarine deal was being negotiated, Mr Baginda was the lover of 28-year-old Mongolian socialite Altantuya Shaariibuu who was murdered by two of Mr Najib's bodyguards in a patch of jungle in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur in 2006.


Ms Shaariibuu was dragged from a car, knocked unconscious and shot twice in the head, according to court testimony.


She had begged for the life of her unborn baby and then her body was wrapped in C4 explosives and blown up, ensuring the fetus was destroyed, along with the identity of the father.


Ms Shaariibuu, who was abducted outside Mr Baginda's house, had reportedly demanded $US500,000 to remain silent about her knowledge of the submarine deal.


French authorities who opened an investigation into the submarine purchases almost four years ago have issued an indictment against Bernard Baiocco, 72, the former president of Thales International Asia, according to an AFP report in the French language, that was translated by the Malaysiakini news website...


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/troubles-resurface-for-malaysias-najib-in-europe-20160130-gmhmn0.html#ixzz44WSRDLgK
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

Oh but that's not 'Thales Australia', there is no association at all, 'nothing to see here move along'
MTF...P2
Ps Hmm..wonder if Thales has/had any association with the FPDA?
Aviation Mandarin, JORN & the sleepy echidna.