The Cargo Integrity Group (CIG) has called on national administrations to carry out and report the findings of their container inspection programmes, and for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to continue collating and publishing the results in a publicly accessible form, to support efforts to improve safety in the carriage of goods by sea.
The CIG said that, under resolutions adopted more than 20 years ago, member governments of the IMO agreed to conduct routine inspections of freight containers and the cargoes packed in them in a consistent way. The findings are submitted annually to IMO for collation and reporting. The enables the creation of a global picture of levels of compliance with international regulations.
However, an analysis by partner organizations in the CIG has revealed that less than 5% of the 167 national administrations covered by the agreement were regularly submitting the results of their inspections to IMO in publicly available form. “Whilst applauding the diligence of those governments making regular submissions, the Cargo Integrity Group is concerned at the overall low numbers of reports as this means that insufficient data is available for IMO or industry to draw reliable conclusions, fundamentally undermining efforts to improve the safety and sustainability of shipments by sea”, the organization said.
The CIG said that it understood that other states might be conducting inspections of containerized goods entering and leaving their countries, but were not submitting the findings to IMO as agreed. “Where such reports are not submitted to IMO, there is no shared value”, it said.
Common and consistent reporting of inspection findings were felt to be essential to help target communication and training programmes aimed at improving awareness of the requirements and recommended safe practices for the transport of goods in containers. These include the SOLAS Convention, the CSC Convention, the IMDG Code, and the CTU Code.
The Cig pointed out that the dangers posed by poorly packed, mis-handled or mis-declared containerized shipments had been demonstrated again recently in a series of fires and explosions aboard container ships. “Whilst the precise circumstances of these incidents remain under investigation, the Cargo Integrity Group is concerned that measures already in place to help identify possible weaknesses are not being fully implemented and that opportunities for improving compliance standards are being missed”, the Group said.
The CIG partner organizations also expressed their alarm that the IMO was considering discontinuing the collation and publication of these reports in a form that was easily accessible to Industry. The future of this essential function by the global maritime regulatory agency is being decided in meetings taking place this week.