The part of the report that said a senior official of Biman had blamed a large number of trade unions for mismanagement in Biman is not correct, said the clarification.

"While making a verbal presentation on the overall activities of Biman it was stated that there were 10 trade based unions and associations functioning in Biman. Biman official further informed the committee (the parliamentary standing committee on government undertakings) that as per Industrial Relations Ordinance, only three registered trade unions are allowed to function of which only one would hold the office of CBA," reads the clarification.

It also said the Biman Bangladesh Airlines earned a net profit of Tk 34 crore in FY 2003-04 while the projected profit for FY 2004-05 was Tk 44 crore. "Now that the airline industry has been hit by the unprecedented price of jet fuel in recent times, it is anticipated that Biman is going to incur a loss of about Tk 250 crore subject to audit which is in progress," added the clarification.

OUR REPLY
We filed the story on the basis of the information provided by the chairman and members of the parliamentary standing committee on government undertakings after a meeting discussing the situation in Bangladesh Biman. We also included in our report some facts from a Biman report submitted to the committee.