Vanuatu and Palau have become the latest entries into the black list of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) committee on Port State Control.
Both countries will be moved from the grey list with effect from 01 July, joining other flag states such as Belize, Moldova, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Cambodia and Tanzania.
A total of 123 inspections took place on Palau-flagged vessels and 23 of them resulted in detentions.
There were 277 inspections on Vanuatu-flagged ships, with 31 detentions.
From the 73 flags evaluated by Paris.
At its 50th meeting last month, the Paris MoU Committee approved the 2016 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flags and Recognised Organisations (ROs).
The “White, Grey and Black (WGB) List” presents the full spectrum, from quality flags to flags with a poor performance that are considered high or very high risk. It 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.
On the “White, Grey and Black list” for 2016, a total number of 73 flags are listed: 42 on the “White List”, 19 on the “Grey List” and 12 on the “Black list”. In 2015 the number of flags listed totalled 73 flags also; 43 on the “White List”, 19 on the “Grey List” and 11 on the “Black List”.
The “White List” represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record. Compared to 2015, the number of flags on the “White List” has decreased by one.
Flags with an average performance are shown on the “Grey List”. Their appearance on this list may act as an incentive to improve and move to the “White List”. At the same time flags on the “Grey List” should be careful not to neglect control over their ships and risk ending up on the “Black List” next year.
A total number of 19 flags are recorded on this year’s “Grey List”. Last year the “Grey List” also recorded 19 flags. A new flag on the “Grey List” is the Republic of Korea, which last year was on the “White List”. This year Saint Vincent and the Grenadines moved from the “Black list” to the “Grey list”.
Palau and Vanuatu have also moved from the “Grey List” to the “Black List”.
For several years the Committee has closely monitored the performance of classification societies acting as Recognised Organisations, ROs, for 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 is needed before the performance is taken into account for the list. In 2016 there are 33 ROs recorded on the performance list.
Compared with last year’s performance level, a small shift in RO performance in 2016 can be noticed. This year none of the ROs have been placed in the very low performing part of the list. Four ROs have been placed in the low performing part (from 1 last year) and 19 ROs have been placed in the medium part of the list (from 22 last year).
Details of the responsibility of ROs for detainable deficiencies have been published since 1999. When one or more detainable deficiencies are attributed to an RO in accordance with the criteria, it is recorded as “RO responsible” and the RO is informed. Out of 683 detentions recorded in 2016, 91 or 13.3% were considered RO related.
On 1 July 2017 the performance lists will be used for calculating the ship risk profile and flags on the “Grey List” and “Black List” may be subject to the more stringent banning measures in force since 1 January 2011. More information can be found in the 2016 Annual Report, which will be published in July 2017.