Zaid Woldegebriel Gets New Appointment

By Kaleyesus Bekele

Zaid Woldegebriel, who was recently removed from his post of director general at the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA), has been appointed permanent representative of the Ethiopian government at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, Canada.

Headquartered in Montrealዘ ICAO is a UN body that monitors and regulates the global aviation industry. ICAO, among others, generates international aviation laws that governs the global aviation industry, inspects and certifies countries's civil aviation authorities. Ethiopia is one of the founding members of the ICAO established in 1944 under the Chicago Convention. Currently, ICAO is celebrating its 70th anniversary.

Reliable sources at the Ministry of Transport told The Reporter that the Minister of Transport, Workneh Gebeyehu, recently appointed Zaid Woldegebriel, to be permanent representative of Ethiopia at ICAO. However, it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that assigned Zaid as a diplomat since he represents the country. Sources said Zaid flew to Montreal three weeks ago and assumed his new office.

Former Ethiopia's permanent representative to the ICAO, Tefera Mekonnen, resigned from his post in the middle of this year. Tefera who served as permanent representative at ICAO for over seven years secured a job in ICAO's Nairobi Office. A diplomat at the Ethiopian Mission in Canada, Nebiat Mekonnen, was temporarily representing Ethiopia in ICAO until the appointment of Zaid.

Zaid's new appointment has instigated discontent among aviation professionals at home. Sources close to the matter told The Reporter that it is usually aviation professionals from the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) who represent Ethiopia at ICAO. Sources claim that Zaid has no knowledge of the aviation industry. "This is a very technical job. Zaid could be a respected transport economist but he has no experience in the aviation industry," sources said.

Zaid has a BA degree in economics from Addis Ababa University and a masters degree in transport economics from Leeds University in the UK. He has worked in the transport sector for the past 30 years in the Transport Authority, Ministry of Transport and the Ethiopian Roads Authority. He served as planning department head at the Ministry of Transport. He joined ERA in 1998 and became director general in 2004. Zaid was removed from ERA in a letter signed by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn last October.

Ethiopia has been having permanent representatives at ICAO for the past fourteen years and had two representatives since then who served the Ethiopian aviation sector for many years. Sources said previous representatives were directors-general of ECAA. The first representative was Meshesha Belayneh who studied Mathematics at the Addis Ababa University and Air Transport in the UK. Meshesha was head of planning at the Ministry of Transport and was replaced by Zaid when he joined the ECAA. Meshesha was director general of ECAA. Later he was assigned as Ethiopia's permanent representative to the ICAO. After serving for seven years he left his position to become director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana. Until recently he was ICAO's regional director for East and Southern Africa based in Nairobi.

The second representative, Tefera Mekonnen, who served the ECAA for many years, studied Economics at Addis Ababa University. Tefera was also trained as an Air Traffic Controller at the ECAA Training Center. He was head of the planning and air transport department before becoming director general of ECAA.

Sources said that both Meshesha and Tefera have vast knowledge and experience in the aviation sector, adding that this is the first time that a person with no experience in the aviation sector is going to represent Ethiopia at the ICAO. "The move has enraged everyone in the local aviation sector," sources said.

Workneh reportedly got the consent of Prime Minster Hailemariam to appoint Zaid. Sources told The Reporter that Zaid was removed from ERA for delayed road construction projects and tolerating poor performing contractors. Though the letter of his appointment was issued by Workneh it was not distributed to all the concerned authorities.

The communication directorate at the Ministry of Transport said that it was not aware of the details. The director general of ECAA, Wossenyeleh Hugnegnaw (Col.), declined to comment on the matter.

Source: AllAfrica