The Paris MoU has approved its 2017 port state control
inspection results for 2017 and adopted its new “White, Grey, and Black”
performance lists for flag states and Recognized Organizations (ROs).
The Paris MoU’s annual “White, Grey and Black (WGB) List” ranks
flag states from best to worst, from flags with a high performance (White) to
flags with poor performance that are considered high or very high risk (Black).
The List is based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a
3-year rolling period for flags with at least 30 inspections in the period.
The new “White, Grey and Black List” for 2017 is to take effect
from 1 July 2018, at which point it is used to calculate an individual Ship
Risk Profile. Typically, flags on the “Grey List” and “Black List” are subject
to more stringent banning measures.
The Paris MoU consists of 27 participating maritime
Administrations and covers the waters of the European coastal States and the
North Atlantic basin from North America to Europe. Its mission is to eliminate
the operation of sub-standard ships through a “harmonized system” of port State
control.
Each year, more than Annually more than 18,000 individual
inspections take place on board foreign ships in the Paris MoU ports, ensuring
that these ships meet international safety, security and environmental
standards, and that crew members have adequate living and working conditions.
In its newly adopted 2017 “White, Grey and Black List”, the
Paris MoU included a total of 73 flags – the same number as last year.
This year’s list had a total of 40 on the “White List”, 20 on
the “Grey List” and 13 on the “Black List”. This compares with 42 on the “White
List”, 19 on the “Grey List”, and 12 on the “Black List” last year.
New to the “White List” this year, i.e. flags with a consistently-high
performance record, are the Republic of Korea and Poland. The top performer
this year is France, followed by the Cayman Islands, Netherlands, Denmark and
the United Kingdom, respectively.
Korea’s move to “White List” comes after one year on the “Grey
List”.
Flags with an average performance are shown on the “Grey List”.
On this year’s “Grey List” a total number of 20 flags are recorded, an increase
of one compared to last year’s list.
New to the “Grey List” this year is the Islamic Republic of
Iran, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and the United States, which were all
on the “White List” last year.
The United States moved back to the “Grey List”, ranking as the
43rd best performer behind Algeria and Kazakhstan on the “Grey List”.
From being a non-listed flag last year, Tuvalu is now on the
“Grey List”.
The only change to the “Black List” this year is the addition of
the Ukraine. The Republic of Congo came in last as the worst performer.
For several years, the Committee has also closely monitored the
performance of ROs acting on behalf of flags.
To calculate the performance of the ROs, the same formula to
calculate the excess factor of the flags is used. A minimum number of 60
inspections per RO are needed before the performance is taken into account for
the list. In the RO performance table to be used for the calculation of the
Ship Risk Profile from 1 July 2018, 34 ROs are listed.
In 2017, there was a only a small shift in RO performance
compared to last year.
This year, three ROs are in the very low performing position
against none last year. Three ROs are in the low performing positions compared
to four last year and 17 ROs are in the medium position of the list compared to
19 last year.
Details of the responsibility of the ROs for detainable
deficiencies have been published since 1999. When one or more detainable
deficiencies are attributed to an RO in accordance with the Paris MoU criteria,
this is recorded as “RO responsible” and the RO is informed. Out of 685
detentions recorded in 2017, 99 or 14.5% were considered RO related compared to
13.9% in 2016.
Port State Control regimes carry out inspections on ships to
monitor and enforce compliance with international regulations. Since the first
regional PSC agreement was signed in 1982 (the Paris MoU), the IMO has since
supported the establishment of a global network of eight additional regional
PSC regimes.
The nine regimes now cover Europe and the North Atlantic (Paris
MoU); Asia and the Pacific (Tokyo MoU); Latin America (Acuerdo de Viña del
Mar); Caribbean (Caribbean MoU); West and Central Africa (Abuja MoU); Black Sea
(Black Sea MoU); Mediterranean Sea (Mediterranean MoU); Indian Ocean (Indian
Ocean MoU); and Persian Gulf (Riyadh MoU). The United States Coast Guard
maintains the tenth PSC regime.
During an IMO workshop in October 2017, the world’s Port State
Control regimes agreed to
consider moving away from black/grey/white lists and
towards expanding an individual ship risk profile approach.
India was in the Grey List at 46th position in
2013-15 and now it is at 60th
position. |