Level of compliance not satisfactory
Fire safety has been one of the top three categories of deficiencies recorded duringPSC inspections for many years. For the purpose of verifying compliance of fire safetysystem requirements and raising awareness of fire safety related issues, memberAuthorities of the Tokyo MOU undertook a Concentrated Inspection Campaign on FireSafety System (FSS) from 1 September to 30 November 2012.
During the three-month period, a total of 8,274 PSC inspections were conducted bythe eighteen member Authorities, of which 6,606 were related to a CIC inspection.There were a total of 217 detentions recorded during the CIC inspections, amongwhich 150 or 69% of them were detained as the direct results of the CIC. TheCIC-topic related detention rate is 2.3% while the overall CIC detention rate 3.3%. Atotal of 4,279 CIC related deficiencies were recorded. The most significant deficienciesfound during the campaign were related to fire-fighting equipment and appliances 659(15.40%), followed by ready availability of fire-fighting equipment 470 (11%) and firedetection and alarm system 410 (9.58%).The most CIC inspections relating to ship type were conducted on bulk carriers with2,124 (32%) inspections, followed by general cargo/multi-purpose ships with 1,639(25%) inspection and container ships with 1,136 (17%) inspections. 81 (54%) of theCIC-topic related detentions were due to general cargo/multi-purpose ships and 34(23%) were bulk carriers.
The most CIC inspections relating to flag were carried out on ships under the flags ofPanama with 2,095 (32%) inspections, Hong Kong (China) with 634 (10%) inspections,Liberia with 468 (7%) inspections, Singapore with 393 (6%) inspections, Republic ofKorea with 333 (5%) inspections and Marshall Islands with 327 (5%) inspections.Flags with the most CIC-topic related detentions were Panama with 61 (41%)detentions and Cambodia with 20 (13%) detentions. The flags with the highest CIC-topic related detention rate were Equatorial Guinea with 50% (1 detention out of 2inspections), Tanzania with 33% (4 detentions out of 12 inspections), Cook Islandswith 33% (1 detention out of 3 inspections) and Togo with 25% (1 detention out of 4inspections).
Although the overall results of the CIC is generally satisfactory, giving the fact thatnearly 70% of the detentions was CIC-topic related during the campaign period, theindustry has not achieved an acceptable level of compliance with the relevant firesafety system requirements. This campaign was carried out jointly with the Paris MOUand also with participation by regional PSC regimes of the Black Sea MOU, the IndianOcean MOU, the Mediterranean MOU and the Viña del Mar Agreement.The detailed analysis of the results of the campaign will be considered by the PortState Control Committee in October 2013 and will be presented to the Sub-Committeeon Flag State Implementation of the IMO.
Source: Tokyo MOU