Rising ship detentions prompt DGS to call for action

At the behest of the Directorate General of Shipping, the ISM Annual workshop 2008 was held on November 28, 2008 at the Maritime Training Institute of the SCI, Powai, Mumbai, against the backdrop of rising port state control (PSC) detentions abroad of Indian flag vessels. Designated persons of various Indian shipping companies attended in large numbers to take stock of the situation and bring in place a scheme to eliminate future detentions.

D. Mehrotra, deputy chief surveyor, informed that this year there have been around 11 more detentions of Indian vessels abroad than last year, under various MOUs which was unprecedented. Last year there had been only 6. This reflected adversely on the concerned shipping companies and the extent the International Safety Management (ISM) code was being adhered to. However, in at least six to seven cases the detentions were not justified and the directorate has taken up the matter with the concerned flag state.

The chief surveyor, Ajoy Chatterjee in his keynote address agreed with many of the shipping companies which had indicated the need for having their own management and professionals. However, he felt that the changeover needed to be smooth and was a welcome move as long as it ensured proper safety management.

He pointed out that in implementing the ISM code there has to be a change in the style of working. “Basically and historically when any incident occurs there is a tendency to maintain a blame culture,” he said. “This has to be replaced with a culture of compliance based on the ISM model. The creation of self-regulation which encourages each and every company to establish its own priority of safety and standard of compliance will greatly help in is regard. If detention takes place under the flag state inspection, then it is to be considered a failure of the classification society. If detained the ship owner is at a loss, the flag state is responsible and indirectly also the port state control.”

In a message to the shipping community, Ms Lakshmi Venkatachalam, Director General of Shipping and ex-offico additional secretary to the Government of India pointed out, “The human element ashore and onboard has been identified as the cause for a majority of accidents, incidents and pollution from shipping operations. The processes under the ISM code, in essence, provide tools to monitor the performance of a shipping company in managing the safety and pollution prevention of its ships. Against the backdrop of rising PSC detention of Indian flag vessels, I am sure that the shipping fraternity will be eagerly looking forward to the recommendations and conclusions of the ISM seminar which will strengthen their efforts towards making the oceans safer and cleaner.”

Rolling out ‘A road map to a just culture – Enhancing Safety of ships and protection of the marine environment’, Mr Chaterjee explained that ISM begins the day certification is received on board and cannot totally be with the ship board staff alone to implement. The offshore staff should also be involved unless they have complete faith and trust with those on board. But compliance with the ISM Code will not in itself create a safety culture. There has to be a will to do so by those individuals who have the power at corporate level and those having the values and competencies to make it really happen.

A review of the ISM implementation during the year 2007-08 from the statistics that have been gathered by the ISM cell of the directorate was presented by Rajeev Prakash Iyer from the directorate. The various audits that were carried out clearly indicated that non-conformities had gone down remarkably. In the study carried out by Prakash from the Indian Register of Shipping on the reasons for detentions by foreign flag states, details were given about the non-conformities. Certain facts of a survey carried out by Great Eastern Shipping (GE) of 20 vessels which had experienced detentions abroad were presented by Capt Golli of GE. It was revealed that many detentions made by foreign flag states were not in order and without much justification.

A senior manager of Bernhard Schulte Ship Management (India) gave an inspiring presentation on ‘Improving Implementation of ISM’. He explained how the company has been pioneering the safety management system implementation since 1998. “The success of ISM Code is that it provides a foundation for shipping companies to build a solid safety management system,” he stated. “Failure comes from the fact that most companies considered it as the ultimate goal for certification and an end in itself.”

Following an analysis of PSC detention of Indian flag vessels made by the ISM cell, a number of representatives of the concerned companies whose vessels faced detention gave their response. While most agreed that the detentions were justified some felt that PSC officials were over-stepping their line of duty while others felt that there was no reason for the detention of their ship.

What many shipping companies consider ISM to be can be gauged from what Mr Chatterjee stated in his summation. “When I visited some of companies I got the impression that the shipping representative who is supposed to be functioning as the ‘Designated Person’ did not know exactly what his role was. They felt that their role ended outside their cabin. In one case a lady who was a stenographer was appointed the ‘Designated Officer’ of the shipping company. The reason being that the lady was the first to come to the office, open the office and go about her work of typing.”