[Peetwo]

The OneSKY (Thales) trough runneth over -

Well in light of Harfwit's "nothing to see here" plea above and the Hoody defection to the ATSB, the following from 'that man,' via the Oz, is kind of embarrassing..

Airservices Australia execs racked up $40,000 bill on Paris trips

• Ean Higgins
  
• The Australian
  
• May 6, 2016 12:00AM
  

Airservices Australia chief executive Jason Harfield has owned up to being one of the four executives who made trips to Paris for talks with aerospace group Thales that collectively cost more than $40,000.

Details of the Paris trips in December and January were fiercely guarded secrets the Airservices media unit attempted to keep hidden from the public and the aviation industry that funds the government-owned organisation.

They were only revealed by The Australian last month following a freedom of information application.

The FOI information produced documents showing two pairs of Airservices officials made the trips to talk with Paris-based aerospace group Thales, the lead contractor on the $1.5 billion OneSKY air traffic control project.

The executives flew business class and stayed at a four-star Paris hotel, on the three or four days they were in the French capital each time.

Thales has more than 3000 staff in Australia to deal with customers here, leading the president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Marc De Stoop, to brand the trips an example of what he claimed was extravagant and unnecessary expenditure.

The issue of trips to Paris, and other spending by executives and huge fees for consultants, has also been a bone of contention among dissident Airservices staff.

Airservices, which runs the country’s air traffic control and airport rescue services, has appointed Thales the principal supplier for OneSKY, which will integrate the civilian and military ATC systems into a new state-of-the-art service by 2021.

Even after The Australian received the FOI information detailing the trips, Airservices media would not reveal which executives went on them.

But with a second FOI request in train to find out which executives took the trips to the City of Light, Mr Harfield revealed the answer in an interview with The Australian.

He said he and Airservices chairman Angus Houston had made the trip in January, while general manager of future service delivery Nick King along with chief financial officer Paul Logan went in December as part of the negotiations with Thales.

“We’ve had a long-term relationship with Thales, 25 years, as well as the fact that Thales is our current incumbent supplier,” Mr Harfield said.

“We agreed that the chair and CEOs will get together twice a year, once in Paris and once here in Australia.

“The chairman and myself will probably go again next year. It’s once a year for us.
“Patrice Caine — the group chairman (and CEO) of Thales was out here in October last year. This is an ongoing thing.”

Mr Harfield said it was necessary for Mr King and Mr Logan to travel to Paris for talks with Thales because the French capital is home to the company’s air traffic management business.

“The actual headquarters for air traffic management — although there is a unit in Melbourne of about 80 people — is actually in Paris,” he said.

“We went as part of negotiations. It was a joint Airservices/defence delegation.
“The trip with the two executives will be a one off. No other one planned … unless we have to go to air traffic management headquarters.”

Details of other spending, including on Airservices credit cards, were requested by The Australian but not voluntarily provided. Those are now also subject to an FOI application.
Additional reporting: Mitchell Bingemann

Keeping digging Higgo & Binger...
What a good time to consider flogging off ASA - see HERE TAAAF Aviation policy pdf page 17 (R12) & pg 39 -
MTF...P2