Notice to PSCOs No.14 Interim Training Measures for BS MOU Policies on the Training of New Entrant PSCOs

Following the outbreak of the ongoing Covid-19, Pandemic, the number of PSC inspections carried out decreased enormously. Because of this, for new entrants and existing Port State Control Officers (PSCOs) have difficulties to achieve or maintain their authorization as the minimum numbers of inspections might not be achieved.
In addition that, training activities undertaken by either member States or other organizations has been cancelled or postponed. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, neither face-to-face nor virtual training programme for new entrant PSCOs has been anticipated by the Secretariat.
The Section 2.7 of the BS MOU Policy on the Training of New Entrant PSC Officers sets out the criteria to apply for “special circumstances”. These circumstances are defined as “circumstances which are beyond the control of the responsible Administration and which make it unreasonable for a new entrant PSCO to reach the minimum number of supervised inspections during their training”.
In accordance with the BS MOU Policy on the Professional Development Scheme for Port State Control Officers, there have been difficulties for PSCO subject to Common Assessment of Compliance (CAC) to achieve the minimum number of supervised inspections.
Also, during the Covid-19, Pandemic, existing PSCOs, may equally be faced with circumstances beyond the control of their Administrations rendering it impossible to either achieve the minimum number of 10 inspections per year, or to fulfil the additional training requirements.