By Jumah Kakomo
The Minister of State for works and Transport, Fred Byamukama confirmed the development on Thursday at Uganda media centre Kampala before media saying Uganda’s aviation sector scores 72.17% in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and confirmed high level of compliance with international standards.
The minister noted that as you may aware, Uganda has been undergoing a universal safety oversight audit programme – continuous monitoring approach (USOAP-CMA), an onsite audit conducted by the ICAO from September 6, 2023.
He says the international audit was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of Uganda’s safety oversight system in compliance with the ICAO standards and recommended practices (SARPs). ICAO is one of the most important objective tools for assessing the security system of civil aviation of the state.
Byamukama noted that, at the closing meeting of the audit held on September 18, 2023, ICAO’s lead auditor issued the preliminary results for Uganda with a score of 72.17%. The results indicated an overall improvement in the safety performance of the state of Uganda, ranking the state above the regional/Eastern and southern Africa (ESAF) region average of 55.66% and global average of 75.68%. The system audit score is a vote of confidence in Uganda’s aviation safety system, which shows the entire international aviation community that the country complies with ICAO standard.
The 72.17% score was reached at after an assessment of Uganda’s affective implementation of the eight critical elements (CEs) of the state safety oversight system as well as the status of compliance with the ICAO SARPS in the eight audit areas, which included primary legislation, Organization, Personnel Licensing, Flight Operations, Airworthiness, Aircraft Accident investigation, Air navigation services, and Aerodrome and ground aids.
“Low assessment on the results of the ICAO audit may lead to serious negative consequences such as restrictions on flights by other countries and the aviation security audit is a comprehensive check on the airport security system,” Byamukama noted.
Minister Byamukama noted that the audit team appreciated the good work done by the regulator in the certification process of Entebbe International Airport and re-certification of Uganda Airlines, among others.
He urged Uganda Civil Aviation Authority and industry stakeholders to maintain the momentum that was exhibited during the on-site audit with intent to retain the consistency in the oversight responsibilities, to ensure a robust state oversight system in the country.
The minister however noted that the ICAO auditors’ results are preliminary with final results to be released after six months of the audit.
“Previously, the last safety audit on Uganda was done in 2014 by the ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) and the country scored 61.64%,” Byamukama added.
