Editorial
Biman made into PLC
It should have a timeline to privatise
The first step towards corporatisation of Biman has been taken by turning it into a public limited company. A management board consisting of six secretaries of the government is to run the affairs of the PLC. On the face of it, one may argue that in place of civil aviation minister, secretary and the Biman MD so far governing Biman Bangladesh Airlines, six secretaries would now rule the roost bureaucratising the organisation even more than before. Going deeper one finds that the decision making process may have been actually streamlined. Secretaries of the cabinet division and ministries of energy, commerce, finance, civil aviation and foreign affairs now coming under the same roof as board members, important decisions can be taken expeditiously without recourse to files moving up and down the labyrinthine structure of the government. The idea is to clear the accumulated management mess in Biman and turn it into a reasonably commercially viable entity before its shares are offloaded to the private sector. The government which now controls 100 percent of the share has plans to make over 49 percent of it to the private sector and retain 51 percent to itself. But with Biman's annual financial hemorrhaging and high level of liabilities, especially to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation(BPC), there would be few buyers of Biman's share if it were to be offered right away. So, one would find some logic behind the gradualistic approach. It is of utmost importance, however, to raise the question as to whom the board would be accountable? True, it would be governed under the companies act; but after all the board members are government officials and a parliament is some way off. From this standpoint, it would have been better had there been some private sector representatives on the board. The real problem lies with management. Professionals should be inducted in finances, marketing and operations departments with delegated authorities to act freely. There should be zero tolerance of politicisation, favouritism and enjoyment of undue privileges. The board members ought to refrain from creating personal fiefdoms. Finally, the board must work with a definite timeline to clear the debts of the airlines, make it operationally efficient, privatise the shares, and turn it into a truly competitive, profitable and, above all, commercially viable entity. The timeframe should be made public.
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