THE CARIBBEAN MOU ACCEPTS ITS FIRST ASSOCIATE MEMBER DURING ITS 18th MEETING

The Caribbean Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (CMOU) held its 18th Committee meeting in Havana, Cuba from the 23 - 25 of July, 2013. This meeting was hosted by the Maritime Safety and Survey Directorate of the Ministry of Transport. During this meeting, the Committee unanimously accepted the application of France as an Associate Member of the CMOU. France is the first Associate Member of the CMOU sine this new membership category was added in 2010.

The meeting was attended by twelve of the fifteen member States with only the Aruba, Grenada and Guyana not being able to attend. The observer State of the Sint Maarten attended and advised the committee of their intention to apply to become Associate Members to the CMOU in the very near future. In addition, the Regional Maritime Advisor of the IMO, the Deputy General Secretary of the PMOU, the Secretary General of the Abuja MOU and representatives from Lloyd’s Register and the Viña del Mar Agreement were in attendance.

  Port State Control is a check on visiting foreign ships to see that they comply with international rules on safety, pollution prevention and seafarers living and working conditions. It is a means of enforcing compliance where the owner and flag State have failed in their responsibility to implement or ensure compliance. The Caribbean MOU was signed in 1996 in Barbados and now has a complement of 15 Member States (Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curaçao, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, the Netherlands, St. Christopher and Nevis, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago) and one Associate Member (France).

Ambassador Dwight Gardiner, the Chairman of the CMOU and representative of Antigua and Barbuda, stated that “The addition of new members to the CMOU will certainly assist in moving forward our development and will greatly promote the harmonisation of our efforts throughout the region. We look forward to welcoming new territories in the not too distant future.”

The Technical Standing Working Group (TSWG) of the CMOU presented to the Committee and received approval of the following:

• A revised CMOU Manual which will be kept in a digitized format;
• Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) policy/procedures;
• The methodology for the determination of Company Performance;
• The revised Targeting Matrix for vessels over 500GT;
• The inclusion of the bunkers Convention, 2001, the CLC, 1992 and its protocol as relevant instruments;
• The proposed policy/procedures of the inspection of vessels under 500GT;
• The methodology for the development of a Flag Rating List;
• The implementation of a Concentrated Inspection Campaign on MARPOL Annex V for 2014; and
• Recommendations for the upgrade of the CMIC database system.

The Committee approved the recommendations from the Finance and Administration Standing Working Group (FASWG) for the amendment of the MOU with respect to Sections 2 and 3 and amendments to the Rules of Procedure with regard to Members in arrears. As per the rules of the MOU, the approved amendments will come into effect after six (6) months. Another major development was the approval of the movement of the CMIC database to the Med MOU as per the recommendations of the TSWG. It is expected that the new database is expected to come on-line three months after the agreement is signed.

The revised agreements with EQUASIS and Lloyd’s List Intelligence were presented to and approved by the CPSCC. It is desired that the sharing of data between the organisations will begin in the very near future.

Members were advised of the successful staging of the 5th Annual Port State Control Seminar in Belize City, Belize from April 16 – 18, 2013. Participants were provided with training on the revised CMOU manual and the checklist for the CIC on MARPOL Annex I scheduled for September – November 2013. PSCOs were also given Case Studies to review through group work as well as practical inspections on a Cruiseship and Container vessel. Thanks were expressed to the Netherlands Shipping Inspectorate and Tsunami Marine for providing lecturers for the seminar.

The Committee adopted the 2012 Annual Report including the overview of the activities of the CMOU for the period and the statistics including inspections totally 645, deficiencies reported totaling 1516 and 19 detentions. With respect to categories of deficiencies, Fire Safety Measures had the highest percent of total deficiencies at 17.55% followed by Safety of Navigation. These areas are under consideration for a possible CIC in the future. In addition, information on the performance of ROs and Flags that operate within the CMOU was presented. This revealed that Bureau Veritas (BV) had the highest percent of detentions with 21.05%. In addition, Colombia, Curaçao and Dominica had the worst performance with a detention rate of 100% with their only vessel trading within the region being detained. The complete report is available on the CMOU’s website.

For more information on the Caribbean MoU on Port State Control please consult our Internet Website on the following address: www.caribbeanmou.org