1. EASA Support to the Improvement of Aviation Safety in Africa (SIASA)
RSOO Closing Meeting
CASSOA Experience and Feedback on SIASA Project
31st August 2016
Cologne, Federal Republic of Germany
ROBERT MWESIGWA NVIIRI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CASSOA - UGANDA

2. ESTABLISHMENT OF CASSOA
18th April 2007 EAC Council of Ministers approved the establishment of the EAC Civil Aviation Safety and Security Agency (CASSOA) as an autonomous self-accounting institution of the EAC
1st June 2007, CASSOA commenced operations with 3 staff (Executive Director, Technical Coordinator, Office Management Assistant) at the seat of EAC in Arusha, Tanzania

3. ESTABLISHMENT OF CASSOA … cont’d
Mandate: Assist the Partner States in their undertaking to make air transport services safe, efficient and profitable while adopting common policies for the development of civil air transport in the region. (from Article 92 of the EAC Treaty)

4. EASA SIASA GOALS TO BE TAPPED BY CASSOA
Support regional regulatory harmonization and standardisation
Support integration in air transport sector

5. EASA SIASA PROJECT BENEFITS TAPPED BY CASSOA
Safety Oversight Facilitated Integration Application – SOFIA – CE5, CE6, CE7 (Entebbe, July 2011)
IASOM Project for Malawi 2013/2016 – CE1 - CE3 (Lilongwe, May 2015)
Workshop on Technology Evolution – Impact on Airworthiness – CE4, CE6, CE7 (Windhoek, September 2014 and Abidjan, November 2015)
Facilitation of Association of African Aviation Training Organisations (AATO) in Certification Requirements for ATO – CE4, CE6, CE7 (Addis Ababa, October 2015)
ECCAIRS V 5.0 training (Cologne, December 2015)

6. SOFIA – Safety Oversight Facilitated Integration Application
Aims at promoting confidence and mutual trust between all Partner States as CASSOA assists in the harmonisation and streamlining of their safety oversight responsibilities
EASA is Licensor, CASSOA is the Licensee. However, Title, ownership rights, and intellectual property rights in the enhancements, modifications or derivative works are vested in the collective ownership of EASA and CASSOA
Latest enhancement, SOFIA Version 2.0 from V 1.5 ( as a user ID option, Captcha enabled, alert and notes viewing, change alert notification, drop down tab levels)

7. CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF SOFIA
Partner States not at par in implementation of SOFIA. (Rwanda has 100% in licensing and a/c registration, Tanzania is about % in licensing, Kenya has not used; they are waiting for V 2.0 rollout, Uganda has had a challenge with internet broadband, Burundi have not yet implemented the system due to the fact that there is no AOC holder)
Slow update of databank to weed out licence holders that have migrated from the region or passed away

8. CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF SOFIA ..cont’d 2
There is a slow resistance to change from conventional manual oversight to SOFIA software system by a few CAA inspectors
Printout format of the Licences not yet agreed upon by the Partner States
Aviation Security oversight not catered for in SOFIA

9. WAY FORWARD FOR SOFIA PROJECT
There is need to increase on the filter options in order to give the possibility to print or export the data filtered in Excel or PDF
SOFIA should give an option to generate a checklist filled in the format of the Harmonised Checklist that is printable
A provision to upload bio data of the personnel should be made

10. WAY FORWARD FOR SOFIA PROJECT …. Cont’d 2
Improve the Inspection Module by adapting all the ad-hoc Checklists to SOFIA and allow the use to tablet or android supported phones by off-line inspection and synchronisation to SOFIA V2 once connected to internet
Development of the online application portal is needed urgently to reduce the work of the users to upload all the supporting documents (it will be convenient for applicants to apply online and follow up the progress of their application up to the issuing of the licence or certificate)

11. APPRECIATION European Union EASA Management team
EASA Technical Co-operation team

13. THANK YOU, MERCI, VIELEN DANK