‘Global cargo industry surprised at IATA’s response on DG Certification’

Glyn Hughes, Director General, TIACA said, “Some TIACA members have expressed surprise at the answer given by IATA as to why they are refusing to accept certificates of DG training without an accompanying letter from the training school that issued them. Firstly, IATA states that over the years it has received fraudulent DG training certificates across the world, considering the serious ramifications of such fraudulent submissions, has this issue been brought up with FIATA through the IFCC?  Also, as Agents who submit fraudulent certificates are breaking national laws and pose a serious safety risk to the industry, has IATA reported these to the national authorities so legal action could be taken?  Have they terminated their IATA agency status?  We checked with several authorities and industry contacts and cannot identify such terminations.  Perhaps IATA can confirm how many fraudulent certificates and in which jurisdictions and what action was taken. Secondly, if an organization has shown no respect for the rules or laws by submitting fraudulent certificates, then why would IATA not think that they would also produce a fraudulent letter from the named training school. And thirdly, IATA refers to changed accreditation rules applicable from July 1, 2024.  Have the rules been changed for every country or just India? Does this mean IATA has changed the applicable Agency Resolutions, which are the rules which govern the accreditation criteria and process?  Or is it an IATA process that has changed?  Surely if IATA is concerned about the validity of certificates provided to them, and they want to tackle the safety risk most effectively, then they should establish a checking mechanism which doesn’t involve the party submitting the certificate. They could check with the respective national authorities to ensure the school is certified and then they could check with the respective schools if the person named on the certificate matches their records for successfully completing the training. The best course of action to address this and other industry safety and security issues is to clearly articulate the problem, dialogue with those who can assist and then develop workable industry supported solutions.”