One of the positive things that can be said about the European Maritime Safety Agency is the government can draw valuable lessons from the audits it conducted in preparing for the country’s more comprehensive audit scheduled next year under the International Maritime Organization Member State Audit Scheme or IMSAS.

As we shared in the last issue, EMSA is only about the country’s compliance with the STCW Convention, but IMSAS covers five IMO major conventions. Aside from STCW, IMO will conduct an audit on our compliance with SOLAS, MARPOL, Load Lines and Tonnage Measurement.

EMSA identified early on that one major problem in the implementation of STCW was the involvement of several agencies performing STCW functions. Fortunately, this was addressed through Republic Act 10635 which designated the Maritime Industry Authority as the central maritime administration principally responsible for the enforcement of the STCW Convention.

We see the need for a law, similar to RA 10635, that will identify the country’s competent authority for IMSAS.

Notwithstanding RA 10635, we can observe that there remain some glitches in the enforcement of the convention, particularly in maritime education and training.

A similar situation can be observed when it comes to our implementation of the four other conventions. There are several agencies involved in these conventions, aside from Marina, the Philippine Coast Guard, and the Philippine Ports Authority, among others.

We understand that Marina, to its credit, has taken the initiative to meet with other concerned agencies in recent years to prepare for IMSAS.

The recent independent evaluation of our compliance with the STCW Convention is part of Marina’s preparation, but that is just one convention.

Nonetheless, we see the need for a law, similar to RA 10635, that will identify the country’s competent authority for IMSAS. It could be the Department of Transportation, depending on our lawmakers’ appreciation of IMSAS.

Since the start of mandatory audits of Member States under IMSAS in 2016, and up to the

present, more than a hundred audits have been carried out in compliance with the general audit schedule.

The audits are conducted in accordance

with the overall audit schedule following the procedures adopted by IMO and are planned, conducted and reported in accordance with the provisions of the IMO Instruments Implementation Code or the III Code.

The III Code or Three “III”s Code is the key instrument that will be used in the conduct of IMSAS. It provides a Code that all Member States are and will be audited to assess their capability and resources in satisfying their international obligations as Flag State, Port State, and Coastal State.

Audits take place every seven years. There were 25 Member States audited in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and only 23 in 2019. No audit was conducted in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, 25 Member States were scheduled and, so far, 24 were audited. The Republic of Korea is the 25th and it is scheduled this month. The Philippines is scheduled to be audited in October 2023.

The primary objective of IMSAS is to ensure that all of its Member States can fulfill their international obligations. It came about in response to criticisms that there are Flag States that accommodate sub-standard shipping by not implementing and not having national policies for maritime safety and pollution prevention.

IMSAS is intended to get all Member States to perform at an equal level playing field that allows them to operate effectively and uphold IMO’s mandate to ensure safe, secure, and efficient shipping on clean oceans.

Any Flag State Administration that cannot demonstrate to auditors how they comply by having the data and management information available will not do well in the audit. Where Flag States have a decentralized operation, it is likely that the audit will take place in one location but will require consistent data from all office locations to be available.

For those states that fail the audit, the ultimate sanction by the IMO could be to close down the Flag State as some industry observers said. That would be unfortunate for the Philippine maritime industry.