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13 May 2008

UK study reveals flaws in ISM code - Concerns raised over lack of standardisation

Michael Grey - Dienstag 13 Mai 2008

THE first major review of the International Safety Management Code and its implementation has been commissioned by the UK 's Maritime & Coastguard Agency.

Designed to establish the effectiveness of the code in improving safety and developing a safety culture over the past 10 years, the review was undertaken by ISM expert Phil Anderson and his ConsultISM group, in time for a presentation at the International Maritime Organization's Maritime Safety Committee meeting being held in London this week.

While the project was focused on UK ships, it also rated the UK fleet against other Paris Memorandum of Understanding 'white list' maritime administrations from 1998 to 2006 and investigated other quality management systems used by the shipping and other industries.

The oil companies' Tanker Management and Self Assessment was one of such systems reviewed.

Interviews and data were collected from sources including operators, insurers, external observers, seafarers, port state control bodies and designated persons ashore. There was a consensus of opinion that the shipping industry was a much safer and more environmentally friendly industry than 10 years ago.

Concerns were reported about the lack of standardisation and inconsistent interpretation of safety management systems by external auditors, which had the effect of undermining company policies and leading to "the spirit of the code being lost in those companies affected".

There were worries that prescriptive rules and regulations were being introduced in response to these problems, with a risk that the code itself could become prescriptive.

There was also criticism that external auditors were very free to feed back their disapproval of a safety management system, but would not provide a positive reaction and praise a system that was working well.

Among several recommendations, it was suggested that with greaterstandardisation of approach, and more education, a non-tanker self-assessment programme similar to TMSA might be developed.

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