Appendix 8 - Guidelines for Port State Control Officers on the ISM Code

 1 GENERAL

1.1 The International Safety Management Code ISM Code) was adopted by the Assembly at its eighteenth session by resolution A.741(18) and was amended by resolutions MSC.104(73), MSC.179(79), MSC.195(80), MSC.273(85) and MSC.353(92). The ISM Code has been made mandatory through SOLAS 1974 regulation IX/3.

1.2 The Administration is responsible for verifying compliance with the requirements of the ISM Code and issuing Documents of Compliance to companies and Safety Management Certificates to ships. This verification is carried out by the Administration or a recognized organization (RO).

1.3 Port State control officers (PSCOs) do not perform safety management audits. ISM auditing is the responsibility of the flag State and the company and does not fall under the scope of port State control. PSCOs conduct inspections of ships, which are a sampling process and give a snapshot of the vessel on a particular day.

1.4 The SMS documentation is in the ship's working language, which may not be understood by the PSCO. The procedure may not be harmonized if the PSCO is only able to review the SMS documentation on those ships where they can understand the language.

2 GOALS AND PURPOSE

2.1 The Guidelines provide guidance to PSCOs for the harmonized application of related technical or operational deficiencies found in relation to the ISM Code during a PSC inspection.

3 APPLICATION

3.1 The ISM Code applies to the following types of ships engaged in international voyages:

• .1 all passenger ships including passenger high-speed craft;

• .2 oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers, bulk carriers and cargo high-speed craft of 500 gross tonnage and above; and

• .3 other cargo ships and self-propelled mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs) of 500 gross tonnage and above.

3.2 For establishing the applicability SOLAS 1974 chapter IX and the ISM Code, "gross tonnage" means the gross tonnage of the ship as determined under the provisions of the TONNAGE 1969, and as stated on the International Tonnage Certificate of the ship.

3.3 The ISM Code does not apply to government-operated ships used for non-commercial purposes.

4 RELEVANT DOCUMENTATION

4.1 Applicable documentation for these guidelines is as follows:

• .1 SOLAS 1974;

• .2 ISM Code;

• .3 Copy of the Interim DOC, or copy of the DOC;

• .4 Interim SMC, or SMC; and

• .5 MSC/Circ.1059-MEPC/Circ.401, as may be amended.

5 DEFINITIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS

6 INSPECTION OF SHIP

6.1 Initial inspection

6.1.1 Initial inspection should be carried out in accordance with the Procedures for port State control.

6.1.2 During the initial PSC inspection, the PSCO should verify that the ship carries the ISM certificates according to the provisions of chapter IX of SOLAS and the ISM Code by examining the copy of the DOC and the SMC, for which the following points are to be considered:

• .1 A copy of the DOC should be on board. However, according to the provisions of SOLAS 1974, the copy of the DOC is not required to be authenticated or certified. The copy of the DOC should have the required endorsements.

• .2 The SMC is not valid unless the operating company holds a valid DOC for that ship type. The ship type in the SMC should be included in the DOC and the company's particulars should be the same on both the DOC and the SMC. The SMC should have the required endorsements.

• .3 The validity of an Interim DOC should not exceed a period of 12 months. The validity of an Interim SMC should not exceed a period of six months. In special cases, the Administration, or at the request of the Administration another Government, may extend the validity of the Interim SMC for a period which should not exceed six months from the date of expiry.

• .4 ROs may issue a short-term DOC or SMC not exceeding five months, while the full-term certificate is being prepared in accordance with their internal procedures. If a renewal verification has been completed and a new SMC cannot be issued or placed on board the ship before the expiry date of the existing certificate, the Administration or RO may endorse the existing certificate. Such a certificate should be accepted as valid for a further period which should not exceed five months from the expiry date.

• .5 If a ship at the time when an SMC expires is not in a port in which SMC verification is to be carried out, the Administration may extend the period of validity of the SMC but this extension should be granted only for the purpose of allowing the ship to complete its voyage to the port in which SMC verification is to be carried out, and then only in cases where it appears proper and reasonable to do so.

• .6 No SMC should be extended for a period of longer than three months, and the ship to which an extension is granted should not, on its arrival in the port in which it is to be verified, be entitled by virtue of such extension to leave that port without having a new SMC. When the renewal verification is completed, the new SMC should be valid until a date not exceeding five years from the expiry date of the existing SMC before the extension was granted.

• .7 If no technical or operational-related deficiencies are found during an initial inspection carried out in accordance with the Procedures for port State control and guidelines, there is no need to consider the ISM aspect.

6.2 Clear grounds

6.2.1 Since the PSCO is not carrying out a safety management audit of the SMS during a PSC inspection, the term "clear grounds" is not applicable in this context.

6.2.2 Clear grounds and the subsequent more detailed inspection only exist for technical or operational deficiencies.

6.3 More detailed inspection

6.3.1 If a more detailed inspection for technical or operational-related deficiencies is carried out, this should be done in accordance with the Procedures for port State control. Any technical and/or operational deficiencies found during this inspection should be individually or collectively considered by the PSCO, using their professional judgement, to indicate that either:

• .1 these do not show a failure, or lack of effectiveness, of the implementation of the ISM Code; or

• .2 there is a failure, or lack of effectiveness, of the implementation of the ISM Code; or

6.3.2 If an outstanding ISM-related deficiency from a previous PSC inspection exists and the current PSC inspection is more than three months later, the PSCO will verify, during the present PSC inspection, the effectiveness of any corrective action taken by the company by examining the areas of the technical and/or operational deficiencies of the previous PSC inspection report which led to the issuance of the ISM deficiency.

7 FOLLOW-UP ACTION

7.1 Technical, operational and ISM deficiencies

7.1.1 The principles outlined in the Procedures for port State control with regard to reporting and rectification of technical or operational deficiencies, and detention and release of the ship are applicable.

7.1.2 If there are technical or operational deficiencies reported:

• .1 which, whether detainable or non-detainable, do not show a failure, or lack of effectiveness, of the implementation of the ISM Code, no ISM deficiency should be reported in the PSC inspection report;

• .2 of which at least one non-detainable deficiency indicates a failure, or lack of effectiveness, of the implementation of the ISM Code, a non-detainable ISM deficiency will be reported in the PSC inspection report with the requirement of corrective action within three months;

• .3 which individually do not lead to a detention but collectively warrant the detention of the ship indicating a serious failure, or lack of effectiveness, of the implementation of the ISM Code, ISM will be reported in the PSC inspection report with the requirement that a safety management audit has to be carried out by the Administration or the RO before the ship may be released from its detention; and

• .4 of which at least one detainable deficiency indicates a serious failure, or lack of effectiveness, of the implementation of the ISM Code, a detainable ISM deficiency will be reported in the PSC inspection report with the requirement that a safety management audit has to be carried out by the Administration or the RO before the ship may be released from detention.

• Note: Where the PSCO considers that one or more technical and/or operational deficiencies are related to the ISM Code, this should be recorded as only one ISM deficiency.

7.1.3 The PSCO will verify the effectiveness of any corrective action as described in section 6.3.2. If examination of the areas in relation to an ISM deficiency with the requirement corrective action within three months is found not satisfactory, a new detainable ISM deficiency with the requirement that a safety management audit has to be carried out by the Administration or the RO will be raised. In this case the PSCO should apply the following procedure:

• .1 record one or more technical/operational deficiencies, detainable or not, in the same area(s) which led to the issuance of the previous ISM deficiency;

• .2 mark the deficiency or deficiencies "ISM-related" and add in the additional comments the following text: "This deficiency shows non-effective implementation of the ISM Code in the areas where the ISM deficiency or deficiencies were found during the PSC inspection on _____"; and

• .3 record a new detainable ISM deficiency with the requirement that a safety management audit has to be conducted by the Administration or the RO before the ship may be released from detention.

7.2 Deficiencies not warranting detention

7.2.1 Minor typing errors in the DOC, the Interim DOC, the SMC, or Interim SMC should be recorded in the PSC inspection report as a technical deficiency with the certificates and no ISM deficiency should be recorded.

7.3 Deficiencies warranting detention

The following are deficiencies which may warrant detention:

• .1 deficiencies of a technical and/or operational nature which individually or collectively provide objective evidence of a serious failure, or lack of effectiveness, of the implementation of the ISM Code;

• .2 there is no SMC, Interim SMC and/or copy of the DOC or Interim DOC on board the ship;

• .3 there is no valid SMC or Interim SMC on board;

• .4 the SMC intermediate verification is overdue;

• .5 the SMC has expired and there is no objective evidence of an extension issued by the Administration; or the SMC has been withdrawn by the Administration;

• .6 the DOC or interim DOC has expired or been withdrawn;

• .7 the ship type as indicated on the SMC or Interim SMC is not listed on the DOC or Interim DOC;

• .8 evidence of the DOC annual verification is not available on board;

• .9 the certificate number on the copy of the DOC and the endorsement pages are not the same; and

• .10 the company name, the company address or the issuing Government authority on the DOC or Interim DOC is not the same as on the SMC or Interim SMC.

8 REPORTING

8.1 Technical and operational-related deficiencies

8.1.1 All technical and/or operational deficiencies should be recorded as an individual deficiency in the PSC inspection report according to the Procedures for port State control.

8.1.2 A technical deficiency with the defective item DOC/SMC or Interim DOC/SMC should be recorded in the PSC inspection report under the deficiency code addressing the DOC or SMC respectively.

8.2 ISM deficiency

Where the PSCO has considered the technical and/or operational deficiencies found and concluded these provide objective evidence of a failure, serious failure or lack of effectiveness of the implementation of the ISM Code, an ISM deficiency should be recorded in the PSC inspection report.