IDC Aviation has adopted Centrik to replace the Aviation Management System Qperfect.
Centrik handles all management issues, engineered specifically to manage aviation operations and negate the need for paper, be it safety, risk, compliance/quality, EFBs, OPS, CAMO, AMO management or any other management requirements. With the adoption of Centrik, IDC Aviation is now aligned with the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority which also uses Centrik. Ben Pitts, the Implementation Officer from Centrik conducted a 3-day training in April at IDC Aviation for the management team and staff involved in quality assurance, compliance, safety and training. Centrik provides complete operational management systems for the aviation, military, maritime and banking sectors and helps ensure regulatory compliance. Born from the civil aviation sector, Centrik currently has more than 28,000 users working in some of the most highly regulated and safety critical industries in the world. On the first 4 days of the clean-up, more than 2 tons of marine debris has been collected from the beaches of Alphonse, Astove, Coetivy, Desroches, Farquhar, Platte, Poivre and Remire.
Some 40 volunteers comprising of IDC staff, NGO The Ocean Project Seychelles, Health professionals as well as some other individuals are picking up, sorting and weighing the debris collected from the sea shore. This clean up operation is also part of a survey by the NGO to learn more about the impact of marine pollution in Seychelles. The Ocean Project which was established in November 2016 in response to the global issue of marine plastic pollution affecting the Seychelles with a mission to tackle the problem through education, action and research. This is the first such exercise for the outer islands. The Chairperson of the IDC Board of Directors, Mr. Patrick Berlouis, who is leading the team of volunteers on Coetivy describes as saddening that people in some parts of the world are using the ocean to dispose of their rubbish. He notes that this exercise is just a small step which will hopefully go a long way in educating people about the ocean and the need to protect it. The trend is similar on all the islands. Flip flops, pet and glass bottles, cigarette lighters, tube light and styrofoams boxes are topping the list of debris collected. Large number of Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD), ropes, buoys and nets from fishing vessels are also making it to the shores. The first-ever large-scale clean-up of the outer islands managed by the IDC will take place from March 18th to 31st. As part of the exercise, forty volunteers will clean eight islands, namely Astove, Alphonse, Farquhar, Desroches, Poivre, Remire, Coetivy, and Platte. IDC met with the volunteers before they left, to brief them on the different aspects of the clean-up activity.
All logistics for the clean-up have been taken care of by IDC. “We are sure that volunteers are going to have fun, enjoy this unique opportunity to visit the islands, and do something good for the environment,” said the CEO, Mr. Glenny Savy. Mr. Savy informed the volunteers that IDC undertakes monthly clean-ups on most of the outer islands but saw it necessary to team up with local partners to collect marine debris on a large scale similarly to the Aldabra cleanup project. The aim of the clean-up on the IDC-managed outer islands is to remove and dispose of marine litter that has accumulated along the coastlines of those islands. IDC is collaborating with The Ocean Project Seychelles, a local non-profit organisation created to raise awareness on the dangers of plastic waste. The Ocean Project Seychelles will lead the marine litter assessments on the islands to establish where the plastic pollution hotspots are, how much is arriving annually and how this varies between the inner islands and outer islands. Once collected, sorted, and weighed, all waste collected will be taken to the base camp of each outer island and shipped back to Mahe. A meeting was held at State House between President Danny Faure and the IDC Board of Directors in which the board briefed the Head of State on various projects that are currently being implemented on the outer islands and those that will be undertaken soon.
President Faure also received a full assessment of IDC’s past performances. This discussion was facilitated thanks to IDC’s recent annual report which covers the period 2014-2018, which the President received a copy of. The report provides information on the structure of IDC, the company’s financial review from 2014 to 2018, infrastructure development, conservation, challenges, future plans as well as the auditor’s report, among other information. The issue of the winding down of Green Island Construction Company, a subsidiary of IDC was also discussed. Click here to read more As of February 1st, the prison facility on Coetivy will cease to exist.
This was officially announced during a meeting at State House, whereby President Danny Faure met the management of the Seychelles Prison Services and the Chief Executive Officer of IDC. Delegates from the Ministry of Finance and the department of Home Affairs were also in attendance. IDC and the Prison Services are working on an agreement that will give opportunities to inmates to work on the outer islands. There are currently some 40 inmates on Coetivy. IDC's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Glenny Savy explains that after the government decided to close the prison on Coetivy, it asked IDC to return to the island to start the development plan which was submitted to government late last year. "In the development plan, one of the strategies was to close down the prison and then to - as much as possible - absorb the eligible inmates on a release on license programme and put them back to work until the end of their sentences. The inmates will be chosen by the Prison Services and will be interviewed by the IDC team before being sent to the various islands managed by IDC for various projects. We will try our best to keep these people in the field they are familiar with, such as administration, masonry, fishing, agriculture, mechanics, etc. We hope that at the end of their sentences, for those who wish to continue to work on the islands, they can continue." Part of this license stresses that the inmates should have good conduct and be cooperative and in case an inmate behaves badly while on duty on an island they will be sent back to the Montagne Posee prison. As part of the programme, some 100 inmates will have the possibility to work on the outer islands. Work has started on Providence Island to provide the island with a concrete airstrip, in order to open up the island to development.
Providence Island is at the northern limit of the Farquhar group and lies 330 miles from Mahé, with an area of 157 hectares. At present it can only be accessed by boat and this has severely limited its development. Providence was run as a copra island from the middle of the 19th century up until 2006, when cyclone Bondo destroyed most of the buildings and about 60% of the coconut trees. It was the last island of Seychelles to cease commercial copra production. IDC built a grass airstrip on the island following the cyclone, but this proved to be too unstable for aircraft because of the very fine sand that exists there. No extra funds were available at the time to put in a hard surface, and thus the island was abandoned as without a proper landing strip no tourism development was possible. However earlier this year, discussions were held with President’s Office for the government to partly fund the installation of the hard surface, and SR 5.0 million was approved by the National Assembly within the supplementary budget in October. IDC has thus brought in a construction crew late last month and since then, the workers have been clearing the previous landing strip of casuarina and coconut trees which have colonised the area. Progress has been quick and most of the 1300 m runway has now been cleared of vegetation. The strip is already level – because of the previous work done in 2008/2009 and concreting will start during the course of next week. A presence is definitely required on this island as it is presently a haunt for poachers and the atoll is also probably used as a transit point for drugs. The southern islands of the Providence group (Cerf Island) is only some 180 nautical miles from Madagascar. Once the new airstrip is in place, IDC will set up the village for its staff and prepare for a tourism development project. The surrounding reef flats are known to be a world-class destination for fly-fishermen. A viable fishing venture can also be considered as the area surrounding the various reefs is rich in commercial species. IDC will actually launch the Expression of Interest for businesses interested in developing a tourism project on Providence soon. President Danny Faure has visited the newly completed block of condominiums for first-time home owners and the block of luxury apartments which is still under construction at Perseverance.
This was in the presence of the Chief Executive of the Green Island Construction Company (GICC), Glenny Savy. The condominium project was initiated for first-time home buyers and is a joint-venture between GICC and the government. President Faure visited both blocks and was able to meet and interact with the tenants who have already moved into their three-bedroom apartments housed in the first-time home owners block. Mr. Savy says the luxury apartments will be sold at a higher price and the profit generated will be used to cross–subsidise first-time home owners’ apartments so they can be sold at a more affordable price. Luxury apartments are priced at R5 million while three-bedroom apartments for first-time home owners are priced at R1.5 million and two-bedroom apartments at R1.2 million. The cost of construction for the three-bedroom apartment block aimed at first-time home owners is around R20 million. “In the apartment for first-time home owners, there are three bedrooms and we will soon start construction on the other four blocks which will consist of three-bedroom apartments and we will have five blocks of two-bedroom apartments,” Mr. Savy said. The first-time home owners’ blocks are reserved for Seychellois nationals who do not already own land or private property and they will be unable to sell the apartment for a period of 15 years. However, anyone is free to buy luxury apartments. “Some people can buy it as an investment so maybe they can rent it out. there are no restrictions on luxury apartments and an applicant can buy and rent or sell at their own discretion,” Mr. Savy explained. In terms of security, the entire compound will be totally fenced for the security of the home-owners. it will also be gated and there will be controlled access as well as an electronic house to enter the apartments. Mr. Savy expressed that there has been a high-level of interest in the properties but that some applicants do not have the required 10 percent in savings to access a bank loan. When the South East trade wind starts sweeping the Seychelles beaches with strong and cold wind, Goëlettes Island (part of the Farquhar Atoll) gets ready to host its annual visitors.
Pest-free, treeless and carpeted with grass, Goëlettes is the perfect place for ground nesting seabirds such as Sooty Terns (Golet in kreol) and Brown Noddies (Makwa in kreol), which, starting from the end of April/beginning of May, gather in great numbers on the island and blacken the sky of this piece of paradise. More than half a million seabirds return to Goëlettes once again with only one objective: find a mate and successfully rear a chick, which will carry their lineage on to the next generation of birds.Despite the welcoming environment of Goëlettes island, rearing a chick is anything but easy for the Sooty Tern that have to face different challenges to successfully complete its breeding attempt. Click here to read more |
VacanciesIDC are currently looking to fill a number of job vacancies within the company. For more information please click below.
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