Vigilance is like an 'overarching shadow of threat': Lohani

Air India chief Ashwani Lohani today said fear of taking decisions at the airline is for real as vigilance is like an overarching shadow of threat even as he asserted that there cannot be "quantifiable advanced justification" for commercial decisions.
His remarks come little over a week after CBI registered a case related to software procurement at Air India, a development which he had termed as a "shock" in a blog post on January 14.
The post, which was pulled out from his blog on the same day, had also said that the omnipresent shadow of vigilance and other probe agencies over processes undertaken by the executive has caused maximum damage to the public sector.

In a Facebook post today, Lohani -- who is known to speak his mind -- indicated that there is fear of taking decisions at the airline.
"In my incessant interactions with my men, latest being today, it is becoming increasingly evident that the fear of taking decisions and then making a mistake or being judged wrongly in hindsight is for real," the Chairman and Managing Director of the airline said.
"The fear including that of vigilance is like an overarching shadow of threat looming almost always," Lohani said and emphasised that after all "there are no guarantees more so in commercial decision making nor everything can have a quantifiable advance justification".

"Have to build a culture where men are fearless in taking decisions, decisions that are taken with the right intent, results notwithstanding," he said.
Air India, which is surviving on a Rs 30,000 crore bailout package spread over a ten-year period, is working on ways to improve its financial position. In the last financial year, the airline posted an operational profit of Rs 105 crore on account of low fuel prices and increased passenger numbers.