Liberian Registry undertakes successful IMO audit

THE Liberian Registry has successfully undergone a voluntary audit under the International Maritime Organisation?s recently adopted Member State Audit Scheme. Liberia, the largest flag to have thus far carried out the audit, has emerged without a single non-conformity recorded against the operation of the registry.

The IMO Audit Scheme is intended to provide member states with a comprehensive and objective assessment of how effectively they administer and implement the mandatory instruments of the IMO. And it is intended that the results be systematically fed back into the regulatory process at IMO to help make measurable improvements in the effectiveness of the international regulatory framework of shipping.

Scott Bergeron, Chief Operating Officer of the Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR), the US-based manager of the Liberian Registry, says, “We are very enthusiastic about the audit process and quite satisfied with the manner in which the entire audit programme was conducted. Consistent with the determinations of other independent measures such as Port State Control records and the Flag State Performance Guidelines issued by the Round Table of international shipping associations, the positive outcome of the IMO audit confirms that the Liberian registry is one of the leading ship registries in the world.

“The entire audit process was an extremely valuable exercise. The IMO team which audited the Liberian Registry included auditors from Denmark, Canada, and Germany, in addition to an observer from the US Coast Guard. The audit was conducted in a spirit of enthusiastic co-operation between the registry staff and the experienced IMO auditors throughout the preparation, interviews, discussions, demonstrations and reviews which the scheme calls for.

Having confirmed that Liberia had come through the audit with zero non-conformities, the IMO team made three observations, summarised as:

To make the promulgation of changes and amendments to IMO instruments more efficient;

To better document the oversight activities of Recognized Organisations; and

To document to a higher degree of detail the training and individual capabilities of the hundreds of surveyors who make up Liberia?s worldwide network of nautical inspectors, auditors and casualty investigators.

The flag state audit of Liberia will be complete following the satisfactory outcome of a visit by a member of the audit team to the offices of the Bureau of Maritime Affairs in Liberia, expected later this month.