449 - 01/06 - Port State Control Concentrated Inspection Campaign - Worldwide
The Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control Authorities will start a concentrated inspection campaign on 01 February 2006 focusing on how requirements for preventing marine pollution from ships (MARPOL73/78, Annex 1) have been implemented. The three month inspection campaign will end on 30 April 2006.
The Paris MOU press release explains that in practice the concentrated inspection campaign will mean that during every Port State Control inspection within the Paris MOU region, the oil filtering equipment and record keeping shall be verified in more detail for compliance with the international standards. This campaign will be carried out in parallel with the Tokyo MOU on Port State Control.
The inspections shall be mainly focused on the equipment located in the engine room. Illegal by-passes of the oil filtering system (OFE) and illegal overboard connections from sludge tanks have regularly been found in past inspections. On many occasions the oil record books were not properly kept. In 2004 a total of 3646 MARPOL Annex 1 deficiencies were found during inspections.
During the campaign, Port State Control Officers shall use a list of 13 selected items for inspection, some of which are related to:
· OFE alarm and automatic stopping device
· Discharge to reception facilities
· Sludge capacity for intended voyage
· Illegal by-passes or connections
It is expected that approximately 4500 inspections will be carried out during the concentrated inspection campaign. If deficiencies are found, the Port State Control Officer will conduct an in depth investigation into other aspects of the MARPOL area, including operational performance by the responsible crew.
When deficiencies are found, sanctions by the port State may vary from recording the deficiency and instructing the master to rectify within fourteen days to the detention of the ship until all deficiencies have been rectified. In case of detention, the ship could face the risk of further inspections in other Paris MOU ports and publication in the monthly list of detentions issued by the Secretariat of the Paris MOU.
The twenty-two Maritime Authorities of the Paris MOU include EU members plus Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Norway, and the Russian Federation.
Source of information:
Paris MOU
