On the Big Island, the national airline company, riddled with debts, which had been placed in receivership last October, is losing its leadership duo at the head of the board of directors. It was the Minister of Transport who announced their dismissal on Friday. The next few days promise to be crucial for the future of the company.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tetaud
For many months, the differences of opinion between the Ministry of Transport and the board of directors of the company on the subject of the strategic orientations of Air Madagascar were becoming more and more persistent. Mamy Rakotondraibe and Rinah Rakotomanga, respectively chairman and vice-chairman of the board of directors, have just been removed from their posts. The legal setbacks of one (in preventive detention for suspicion of embezzlement of the National Social Insurance Fund of which he was the director general until last March) and the escapades and suspicions of fraudulent procurement of the other will have gotten the better of them.
The member of the government also made it known that he disagreed with various overly costly or inconsistent strategic decisions taken in recent months. He thus questioned the creation of Madagascar Airlines, the name of the new group including, among other things, Air Madagascar: “ it’s a montage that doesn’t stick “, he asserted in front of the press. Before firing red balls at a series of decisions which, according to him, could only increase the 80 million dollars of colossal debt of the companysuch as this rental of a Boeing 787 for long haul flights, deemed far too expensive in relation to the company’s financial capacities.
For their part, the company’s unions are wondering. What about the recovery plan concocted by the sacked team and which should have been communicated several months ago? ” It’s gonna be a cacophony “, sighs one of them, revealing that Rinah Rakotomanga gathered some of the staff this weekend in front of whom she kept hammering that the minister’s decision did not concern her.
The new organization of the airline should be known today. All the unions plan to all meet in the process, to discuss the future of their society.