Turkish Aviation Industry Under Monitoring

Commercial air transportation operators are now subject to independent audit system in order to control operations which should comply with flight, passenger and cargo safety regulations. Independent auditors however, are supposed to obtain an authorization from Directorate General of Civil Aviation by fulfilling the conditions stated on the regulation of commercial air transportation operator’s audit.

Accordingly, an auditing organization should hold the qualifications listed on below:

• Established as a limited liability company or joint stock company
• If the organization established as joint stock company, all shares should be registered share
• The field of business should be mentioned in articles of association as civil air transportation audit
• Articles of association should comply with the 2920 Turkish Civil Aviation Act
• Fulfil all the qualifications for independent audit regarding qualified board of directors, sufficient number and qualified auditors, technical equipment, internal organization for storage of document and records
• In order to cover damages that might occur during the services, organizations should hold one million US dollars insurance minimum
• 51% of the auditors should be Republic of Turkey citizen
• Full paid capital should be equivalent of minimum 150.000 USD

In addition to the qualifications of auditing organization, each and every independent auditor should severally hold some qualifications as well. Required qualifications of independent auditors differ from their specialty, such as airworthiness department, flight operation department, license department, health department, airport department, air navigation department, security department and air transportation department. In general, all auditors should be experienced for five years in their respective fields, gain foreign language proficiency, and receive all necessary education and training regarding Turkish Civil Aviation and commercial air transportation.

Although, it is required by law to have some personal qualifications, the fundamental principle to be an independent auditor is in fact based on ethical conditions. There are several provisions regulated by Turkish Law to maintain auditor’s independency and continue to treat impartial. In that respect, an auditor cannot join the process of decision making of the air operator which is subject to audit or involve in any financial, commercial or any such kind of activities whatsoever with the shareholders of the operator.

In addition, shareholders or board of directors of the authorized independent audit organization cannot interfere with the work of independent auditor’s which can harm their inspection and auditing activities. Furthermore, shareholders, board of directors, auditors or managers of the independent auditing organization cannot involve in auditing procedure that has a blood relation with any authorized person work for the operator subject to audit. Beyond the relations among auditing organization and operator, in order to make the auditing meaningful and to accomplish all the purposes of the audit, all auditors should be independent, honest, objective and trustable and comply with the ethical and professional values of business during their activities.

For the purposes of auditing services, independent auditing organization should set up a system of quality and standards that enables the organization’s auditing performance comply with the quality of TSE (Turkish Standards Institution), ISO (International Organization of Standardization) or CEN (European Committee of Standardization) and submit the certificate that proves the standards are met, to the Directorate General in one year after the authorization is given by the Directorate General. Moreover, independent auditing organization should store the documents and records regarding all kind of studies of audit for minimum five years. After independent auditing organization finishes the auditing activities with commercial air transportation organization, the audit report will be sent to the Directorate General in order to get the final approval for the audit report. Following the submission of the audit report by the independent auditing organization, Directorate General of Civil Aviation shall evaluate the conditions of the air transportation operator in question considering audit report and, if necessary, may decide to license revocation or administrative penalties.

Turkey is now the biggest third country in Europe with the increasing amount of 400% passenger and 145% air operators. Since Turkish Civil Aviation and commercial air transportation is growing excessively, auditing activities can no longer be the responsibility of Directorate General. Although, Turkish Civil Aviation Authorities transfer its rights to audit the commercial air transportation operators to independent organizations, which fulfil the conditions and gain an authorization from the Directorate General, the right to control and supervising the independent auditing organizations still remain in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation as the supreme authority. Nevertheless, one should certainly accept that, independent auditing of commercial air transportation operators has started to change the standards of commercial air transportation in Turkey and catch the equal quality with the world.