Sochi, the Russian Federation – Representatives of the Port State Control Committee, the governing body under the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Black Sea Region (BS MoU), met in Sochi, Russia, for the Seventeenth session from 12 to 14 April 2016.
The meeting was chaired by Capt. Vakhtang TAVBERIDZE – Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia.
Deputy Minister of Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, Mr. Viktor OLERSKY, in his opening speech, stressed the important role of BS MoU in port State control and the responsibilities of Russia as both flag State and port State. He expressed Russia’s gratitude and appreciation to all the Black Sea countries for their valuable support which contributed to the success of the initiative. Moreover, he encouraged BS MoU to further enhance and improve its activities so as to promote safety of navigation, protection of the marine environment and the labour conditions on board ships. Lastly, he reaffirmed the commitment and continuous support from Russia to the BS MoU and declared opening of the meeting officially.
Concentrated Inspection Campaign on Crew Familiarization for Enclosed Space Entry carried out between 1st September 2015 and 30th November 2015 in the Black Sea MOU region shows the following preliminary results of the responses to the questions relatedto the verification of the ship’s procedures and measures that are in place with respect to enclosed spaces for compliance with the requirements of SOLAS. Information gathered about the existence of measures in place to test the atmosphere of an enclosed space to confirm it is safe to enter and remains safe whilst persons are within the space.
During the course of the campaign six member Authorities carried out a total of 1,022 inspections of individual ships using the CIC questionnaire. Of this quantity 49 ships were detained with 20 (40.82%) of detentions were being within the CIC scope, resulting a CIC topic related detention rate of 1.96%.
A total of 253 non-conformities have been recorded as a result of the campaign out of 1,022 questionnaires submitted.
At the 16th meeting of the Port State Control Committee in Batumi, Georgia, April 2015, the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Black Sea Region (BS MOU) decided to introduce a New Inspection Regime for selection of ships from 1st January 2016 to harmonize further its risk based targeting and inspection system with the leading memorandums, namely Paris MOU and Tokyo MOU, to the highest level.
The existing ship targeting system adjusted to accommodate additional generic parameters (e.g. Flag, RO, and Company performances), weighting points for each parameters, amendment of levels of the ship risk profile and determination of frequency of inspection of for each risk level, benefiting experience after four years of in depth comparative study of the leading PSC inspection regimes and considering discussion at IMO on the small flags.
The BS MOU New Inspection Regime, BS-IR (2016), consists of combination of Ship Risk Profile and Time Windows for clear indication of the order of priority in selection of ships for inspections. Black Sea Information System (BSIS) calculates and displays outputs of sections 1 to 3 using inspection records of member authorities stored in the BSIS for members use at the time of selection of ships for inspections.
The six member Authorities of the (Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine) of the Black Sea Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control will start a concentrated inspection campaign on Crew Familiarization for Enclosed Space Entry. The three-month campaign will start on September 1, 2015 and end on November 30, 2015 under the co-ordination of the Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia. The campaign shall be conducted simultaneously with the Paris MOU, Tokyo MOU and other MOUs.
Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on STCW Hours of Rest 2014 carried out between 1 September 2014 and 30 November 2014 in the Black Sea MOU region shows the following preliminary results of the questions related to the verification both deck and engine room watch-keepers’ hours of rest.
6 ships have been detained in the Black Sea MOU region during the course of the CIC through deficiencies relating to STCW Hours of Rest. The most notable non-conformities observed were lack of correctly recorded records related hours of rest (7.33 %), followed by lack of watch schedule posted in an accessible area (1.75 %) and endorsement of the daily hours of rest records for each watch keeper (1.48 %).
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