Latest news with #OAG
Perth Now
6 days ago
- Business
- Perth Now
East Freo community park plunges council into money troubles
The Town of East Fremantle council is flying in the dark about what the town has spent as staff struggle to meet a paperwork requirement from the Office of the Auditor-General. The OAG wants the town to re-do its financial statements to include income and losses from the recently opened East Fremantle Community Park, which town staff have warned will have an impact on their operations. It has already had an effect, with staff having to delay a report on the town's spending. The council agreed at its July 15 meeting to put off its June financial statement until next month. Financial statements are intended to let the council know what it is spending money on. Under the Local Government (Financial Management) Regulations 1996, they have to be presented within two months after the end of each month. A council report said a 'significant amount of work' had been needed to finalise the town's end-of-year accounts and more time was needed for the June report. Acting CEO and corporate services executive manager Peter Kocian told the meeting that monthly statements had been deferred in the past, but forewarned of more workload issues thanks to the request from the OAG. 1500 locals celebrated the opening of East Fremantle Park. Credit: The East Fremantle Community Park He said he had been in 'lengthy discussions' with the OAG about the accounting treatment of the operations of East Fremantle Community Park. 'We are dealing with a fairly significant issue with the Office of the Auditor-General at the moment, which will impact on the presentation of the town's accounts for the 2024-25 financial year,' he said. 'They will be looking to impose requirements on the town to recognise the consolidated position of the operations of East Fremantle Community Park in the town's financial accounts, meaning that effectively we need to recognise all of the revenues and expenses of East Fremantle Community Park in our statement of comprehensive income, as well as recognise the balance sheet position of East Fremantle Community Park in our statement of financial position. 'So there is certainly some limitations in terms of the reporting that (park operator) Belgravia can provide to the town and it's up in the air at the moment as to whether or not they will be able to meet those requirements. 'We're working through that negotiation with the Office of the Auditor-General.' He said staff would update the town's audit committee at its August meeting. Deputy mayor Tony Natale said it was more work for local government created by the Office of the Auditor-General. 'That's disappointing to hear,' he said. ''I daresay you might need some more assistance.' An OAG spokesperson said to comply with Australian Accounting Standards, entities must include all transactions from activities/operations they control in their financial statements. 'Accordingly, the Town of East Fremantle will need to include transactions from the operation of the East Fremantle Community Park in its financial statements,' they said. Town of East Fremantle CEO Jonathan Throssell told PerthNow the town had not yet received final written advice from the OAG. 'However, as we are finalising our audit, it has been flagged by the OAG that accounting and auditing requirements will need to be more prescriptive for the East Fremantle Community Park,' he said. 'This will require the town to incorporate the East Fremantle Community Park within the auditing regime to a far greater extent than had been previously considered, and will create a cost and resourcing impact on both the town and Belgravia Leisure.' The East Fremantle Community Park, which opened last year after a $32 million revamp, is intended to be a cost-neutral possession for the council.
Bangkok Post
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Bangkok Post
Police send Hun Sen's leaked phone call case to prosecutors, Interpol notice possible
Cyber crime investigation police on Monday sent their case concerning a leaked phone call between Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen to public prosecutors, who are considering requesting Interpol arrest warrants. Pol Maj Gen Siriwat Deepor, commander of the Cyber Crime Investigation Division 1, submitted a 50-page file of the case at the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) in Bangkok on Monday morning. The file was based on a complaint from Somkid Chueakong, deputy secretary-general to the prime minister, who sought legal action against the user of the Facebook account named Samdech Hun Sen of Cambodia. The complainant accused the account user of threatening national security and other criminal offences for releasing a 17-minute-long audio recording of a phone call between Ms Paetongtarn and Hun Sen. Pol Maj Gen Siriwat said that the case concerned an offence outside Thailand and was thus under the direct responsibility of the attorney-general. He said that the accused wrongdoers were the administrators of the Facebook account. He refused to say if Hun Sen was among the accused. Receiving the case, OAG spokesman Sakkasem Nisaiyok said the attorney-general will decide if the case has enough evidence to be brought to a court. If there is sufficient evidence, the case will go to the Criminal Court and if the defendants fail to appear Thai officials will seek arrest warrants from Interpol.
Daily Mirror
12-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
Airport security worker names one mistake that gets passengers stopped
A security officer has revealed a common mistake the majority of passengers make when going through airport security, and doing this will get you stopped and searched. An airport worker has revealed the most common mistake passengers make when going through security - that leads to them being stopped the majority of the time. Going on holiday is exciting, but it can also be stressful. A security airport for one of London's busiest airports has shared advice to help you avoid delays getting to your gate. On average, London's Heathrow Airport handles approximately 1,300 flights per day across all four terminals. According to OAG, it's also one of the busiest airports in the world. One important thing to note is that travel restrictions are different depending on the country. Brits urged to leave one appliance door open before going away on holiday It's best to learn the rules beforehand to avoid getting stopped and getting second-hand embarrassment. He told Travel Radar: "Your bags will be rejected and have to be manually searched if you don't remove certain items - these are CAA and DfT rules we have to follow, and we have no power to change or circumvent them." The security officer also explained that there's always a reason why people have to empty their pockets or their bags. Whenever unsure, ask any member of staff. Otherwise, be prepared to have a ten-minute bag search. Whenever travelling, it's important to empty all of your pockets before passing through, as the scanners can detect anything that may seem suspicious. Even an extra pocket on your trousers could set the red alarm. Most importantly, travellers are to pack smartly, considering the number of items they're bringing with them and their shape. For instance, some countries have ditched the rule of putting all liquids under 100ml in a transparent plastic bag, and can now be spread in the luggage. However, some airports still ask travellers to do so. As a former check-in agent, there was a time when a passenger had to have his luggage searched because he had a toy shaped like a gun, but it turned out to be a harmless water pistol. Those items are better off left at home - and I'm sure this passenger learnt his lesson for his next time travelling. With Brits heading off to sunny destinations for the summer, it's best to take precautions when it comes to travelling. If you're a nervous flyer, it's best to get to the airport with time to spare, but either way, it's best to avoid getting stuck at security. Have you ever had an encounter at the airport while going through security? Let us know in the comments below.
Travel Weekly
07-07-2025
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Airline executives discuss data fragmentation, AI strategy and consumer behavior
The aviation industry is no stranger to machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), with the technologies applied across areas including dynamic pricing and predictive maintenance for some time. Where it might have an impact next is a bigger question. Certainly there are many applications in customer service, as highlighted by Olaf Backofen, head of global retail partnerships for Lufthansa Group, during a session at Phocuswright Europe 2025. Backofen provided an example of a trial between AI-assistant Swifty and Swiss to provide a conversational booking service to travelers. The pilot, supported by some additional market research, has revealed that most customers still prefer traditional booking methods, although younger cohorts such as Gen Z are leaning more towards conversational AI interfaces. Backofen was joined on stage by Filip Filipov, chief operating officer of AI specialist OAG, who stressed the importance of collaboration and industry openness to sharing data in order to drive further innovation amid rapid AI developments. "I think this is the first time in the technological cycle where companies, airlines and other parts of the industry are starting to open up a little bit more to connect the data points across the customer and traveler experience," Filipov said. The pair went on to discuss the industry's longstanding challenges, such as data fragmentation and legacy systems, and how they might hamper aviation's ability to harness AI effectively. Backofen also spoke about retail transformation in aviation and the potential for airlines to sell tickets and other products and services across newer channels, such as social media platforms. "There are a lot of challenges ahead [such as] legacy systems, and we have to create one booking. That's the first thing we have to do. It sounds easy, like you know it from Amazon, but we need to have one database, which enables us to have in one passenger name record, the possibility to buy tickets, ancillaries and everything else. But it will take four to five years until we have this in place." The executives also discussed shifts in consumer behavior and challenges with AI, including its ability to disrupt aviation. Source: PhocusWire
DW
01-07-2025
- Business
- DW
Airlines in turbulence as flight risks rise amid conflicts – DW – 07/01/2025
A range of global conflicts, from Ukraine to the Middle East, are reshaping global aviation. Airlines not only have to avoid certain airspaces but also be prepared for possible interference in their flight systems. The war between Iran and Israel in the Middle East has led to complications for airlines seeking to avoid the airspace whilst also complying with an ongoing Russian airspace ban. Although Iranian airspace has partially reopened following a ceasefire, data from flight tracking website flightradar24 shows that Western airlines are still largely avoiding flying over the country. Most are choosing routes skirting the country's western border, through Iraqi airspace, or over the Arabian peninsula. With Russia having barred Western planes from its skies since 2022, it's the latest example of how an era of rising global conflict is affecting the aviation sector. Another example came in April this year, when Pakistan closed its airspace to Indian carriers after India launched missile strikes on Pakistan, in a military campaign codenamed Operation Sindoor. Although Western airlines are not barred from Pakistani airspace, most currently choose to avoid it. Brendan Sobie, a Singapore-based aviation analyst, says airlines having to reroute due to conflict is nothing new, but he notes that things are especially "complicated" at present. "It's happened a few times now where we've had a lot of chunks of air space in close proximity to each other, close at the same time," he told DW. John Grant, chief analyst at the aviation data company OAG, agrees that there is "a lot more activity" at the moment. He says the Pakistan-India airspace closure is a particular problem for Air India as it means the company's planes must now make a stop during trips to the United States. What has been happening in the Middle East "absolutely is a problem," he argues, noting, however, that airlines have been "adjusting well," particularly by flying over the Arabian Peninsula. "Some people in Saudi Arabia have obviously been a lot busier than they're normally accustomed to, but it hasn't disrupted flight schedules," he told DW. "Aircraft is still arriving and departing on time, and the industry continues to manage its way through these things." In Grant's view, the complications caused by armed conflicts are part of the general unpredictability faced by airline managers all the time. "If we cast our minds back four or five years, the airlines had to deal with a pandemic, which was much worse than anything else," he said, adding that he doesn't believe though that the challenges of operating this year are very different to those of the last decade. "I think every airline CEO probably wakes up every morning, or at least his flight operations director wakes up and wonders what next event or activity in two years that's going to have to be managed and worked through." In terms of business bottom lines, Brendan Sobie says it is often the shorter haul flights that are worst affected by airspace closures. So, for example, the routes between Central Asian countries and the Middle East following the closure of Iranian airspace. "These tend to be short routes, two, three hours, and they become five, six hours, because usually the almost entire flight is over Iran, and you have to go all the way around," said Sobie. He added that repeated airspace closures "can be quite expensive" because of longer flights and the risk of cancelled flights, due to changed route paths. "It all adds cost." John Grant thinks that European airlines have had three years to adjust to the Russian airspace ban and have largely coped. But other factors, such as surging environmental taxes, are having just as detrimental an impact on airlines, making operations "too expensive," with the arising cost getting "passed on to the traveler." Yet, the perception that global conflict is impacting aviation safety is clearly a concern. Nick Careen, senior vice president for operations, safety and security at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) — an airline trade body — wrote an article in late June for the IATA website titled "Operating Safely in a More Conflict-Ridden World." With a reference to the downing of Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8243 last December, he wrote: "Recent conflict in the Middle East understandably has passengers asking what measures are in place to keep flying safe when there are military activities including missile launches." Investigations suggest it was shot down by a Russian missile. Careen raised the specific issue of interference with airplane navigation systems as "a further complication." There has been a "surge in incidents," he said, where "parties in conflict use radio signals to jam the GPS signals that airliners use for navigation," particularly in areas bordering conflict zones. Flightradar24's GPS jamming map shows a map of the world divided into areas of low and high GPS interference. The area with the highest level of interference is a circle stretching from the Baltic states, across Ukraine and Russia, and down towards Turkey and parts of the Middle East. Grant notes that GPS jamming is "another potential risk" to the airline industry," but adds that airlines are "extremely conscious of this and have more than one system for navigating their way through these pieces of airspace." A study by the OPS Group, an international flight operations membership organization, reported a 500% increase in so-called "GPS Spoofing" between 2023 and 2024. GPS spoofing is where a GPS receiver is manipulated and receives false GPS Information. Grant thinks the practice is undoubtedly on the rise, but cautions that airlines have robust mechanisms in place to guard against the risks it poses. "The whole industry works on a basis of minimizing every potential risk," he said, adding: "Airlines are very good at controlling what they can control. But there are always uncontrollable factors."
