The Indian Ocean Memorandum of Understanding (IOMOU) on port State control (PSC) in the Indian Ocean region has published their Annual Port State Control report for the year 2018.
The port State control system aims to verify whether foreign flagged vessels calling at a port of a State comply with applicable International Maritime Conventions. Each Authority ensures that the foreign merchant ships visiting its ports comply with the standards articulated in the relevant Conventions and all amendments thereto in force. When vessels are found not to be in substantial compliance with the applicable regulations, laws or relevant convention requirements, the PSC system imposes actions to ensure they are brought into compliance. Ships to be inspected are selected on the basis of targeting criteria outlined in the Memorandum and a non-discriminatory policy is observed.
A total of 5697 inspections were carried out in 2018. Out of these 5697 inspections, 2856 inspections had deficiencies and the total numbers of deficiencies were 11847.
Serious deficiencies noted by the PSCOs led to the detention of 252 ships and needed to be rectified prior to the ships’ departure; the overall detention percentage for the year was 4.42 %.
There was increase in total number of inspections in 2018, compared with those in 2017; and the detention percentage decreased from 4.95 % recorded in 2017.
The average number of deficiencies per inspection in 2018 (2.07) has slightly decreased compared to the previous year (2.30).
The information given in the statistics represents the port State control activities of Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, France, India, Iran, Kenya, Myanmar, Maldives, Mauritius, Oman, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Sudan.
The remaining member Authorities are trying to overcome the challenges in carrying out their PSC inspection activities. It should be noted that Australia, is a member of both the Tokyo MoU and the Indian Ocean MOU. South Africa is a member of the Abuja MoU and Indian Ocean MOU, Oman is a member of Riyadh MoU and the Indian Ocean MOU. Each record their PSC data with both MoUs, and so when considering a world picture of statistics, this duplication of data needs to be taken into account.
For more details, click below to download full report:
