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With less than two weeks left for seafarers worldwide to comply with the mandatory International Maritime Organisation-sanctioned Standards, Training, Certification & Watchkeeping Convention Regulation 1/10, the office of the Director General of Marine Malaysia has issued an advisory to all concerned parties to take the necessary action or face the wrath of the regulation.
Extreme measures for failure by seafarers to comply with the STCW convention could include detention of vessels manned by seafarers who have not re-validated their certification in accordance with the STCW 1995 Convention.
The marine department in a circular to shipowners, ship managers, masters and officers of ships noted that parties to the convention should take necessary action to formalize the recognition of certificate of competency and the issuance of certificate of recognition.
As part of its responsibility in ensuring compliance to the convention, the Marine Department said it had signed memorandum of undertaking for such recognition with several countries.
"Efforts are also being made to formalise recognition with as many countries before STCW 95 Convention comes into force on 1st August 2002," the Department's recent circular said.
To-date Malaysia has signed STCW 95 Memorandum of Undertaking (MOU) with the Brunei Darusssalam, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Singapore.
Malaysia has initiated discussions with several other countries with a view to concluding similar
MOU.
The countries include Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belize, Denmark, Finland, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong (China), India, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Liberia, Malta, Maldives, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, People's Republic of China, Poland, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.
The Marine department said with effective 15th July 2002, it would cease processing application for Certificate of Recognition from countries that have not established formal undertaking with Malaysia.
It is understood that the Marine department has met with the Malaysian Shipowners Association on the matter.
Meanwhile the Tokyo Memorandum of Port State Control committee Understanding (of which Malaysia is a signatory) has issued a warning to shipowners that it would crack down on substandard manning practices after STCW 95 guidelines come into place at the start of next month.
Once IMO's grace period finishes on August 1, "the provisions of the new STCW95 convention will be strictly enforced by port states in the Asia-Pacific region", the Tokyo MoU confirmed.
Port state control officers will verify that all seafarers required to be certified do hold a valid certificate or dispensation.
Also officers will be required to have an appropriate certificate from the party to the STCW convention and endorsement from the flag state, or have documentary proof that an application for endorsement has been made.
The absence of a flag state endorsement or documentary proof of application to flag state will be recorded as a deficiency which must be rectified at the next port.
Failure to do so will result in the detention of the ship.
Ships with seafarers not properly certificated will face detention if the deficiencies are considered hazardous in any way.
Detainable deficiencies include: no safe manning document; no certificates of competency; no radio operator certificates available; no documentation for personnel with designated safety or pollution prevention duties available.
Importantly detentions can occur even if these documents are in order but the level of manning fails to correspond with the certification produced.
Any deficiencies found, the Tokyo MoU warns, are likely to lead to a more detailed inspection which could include operational drills and an examination of the ship's safety management system, if appropriate.
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