Class Societies To Face Reform And Supervision

INTERNATIONAL - The International Association of Classification Societies is facing fundamental reform and a supervisory agency according to the International Chamber of Shipping. "There's still a tendency on the part of IACS to believe the system they have in place can just be tightened up rather than fundamentally looked at," Chris Horrocks, secretary-general of the International Shipping told a Singapore Shipping Association talk on Friday.  "Somebody said Rome is still burning and the class societies are still fiddling," he noted. The role of IACS has been under close scrutiny since the sinking of the Erika nearly a year ago, but as yet remains largely unreformed. Mr Horrocks said that it would not be that far into future that it was decided that an agency should have supervision over class. While it was difficult to see how this would happen, the International Maritime Organisation was seen as the logical choice. He noted that there had been a swing in opinion at IMO on the issue towards saying "if we can't do it who the hell can?"