eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) senior executives have threatened legal action after its board of directors scrapped their lavish international travel allowances. This is part of efforts by the board to rationalise and reorganise operations after the authority posted a net operating loss of $2.2 million in 2016.
Last year, the authority saw capacity utilisation fall to 25 percent and this had a negative impact on the group resulting in the operating loss.
Well-placed sources at the authority said all senior executives at Caaz had international travel benefits to a destination of their choice with their spouses.
The Caaz board is, however, of the opinion that senior executives should achieve all set targets before they can enjoy the full luxury package.
“Senior managers are threatening legal action because the board scrapped their travelling allowances in order to steer the company back to profitability.
“The travelling allowances included an international flight for them and their spouses. This has since been reduced to just domestic travel,” said the source.
CAAZ board chairman Advocate Thembinkosi Magwaliba confirmed the move saying the aim was to achieve operating break-even by 2018.
“We have scraped allowances as we are trying to contain costs at the same time increasing our profits,” he said.
To ensure efficiency in all the operations, Magwaliba said a continuous improvement of the value chain management system would be undertaken.
But these efforts have not gone down well with management, who are reported to have given its board an ultimatum to reverse their decision or they would proceed and take legal action.
However, sources within the board told Business Weekly that in spite of the ultimatum, they would go ahead and cut the allowances to ensure the efficient survival of the authority.
