CHITTAGONG, August 5: Bangladesh is likely to be blacklisted by International Maritime Organization (IMO) shortly as serious lapses have been detected by the IMO in Bangladesh maritime training, examination and forgery in certification processed from 2009 till 2013.
The lapses could not be rectified by the relevant authority in Bangladesh although the IMO has repeatedly written to the country to take corrective actions.
Director General of Shipping Commodore Zakiur Rahman Bhuiyan has also acknowledged that serious lapses were there in the evaluation report and attempts have been made to correct them and send to the IMO by next week.
Highly placed sources said the consequence Bangladesh might face shortly will include 1) Bangladesh will be blacklisted by the IMO in future, 2) all certificates issued by the Bangladesh Maritime Training Institutes since 2009 till date will be void, 3) activities of the Maritime Training Institutes will not be accepted, 4) Bangladeshi certificate holders will not get any job in foreign ships and 5) Bangladeshi flag ships with certificates issued after 2009 will not be allowed to enter any foreign port.
The whole matter was communicated to the past Director General of Shipping Commodore Jobair Ahmed on June 28 and October 22, 2013 in response to the Department of Shipping report on October 10, 2013.
It said that the information provided in the individual evaluation report has been examined by the panel of Competent persons and further clarifications were sought from the Administration on a number of issues.
Recently another letter dated April 1, 2014 was sent to Commodore Zakiur Rahman Bhuiyan, now Director General of Shipping requesting him to provide the IMO with all information as soon as possible.
The IMO reminded the Department of Shipping (DOS) on June 28, 2013 that the report sent by the DOS was backdated (from 2009 to 2013). Although the evaluation report indicated that corrective actions were taken by the DOS the IMO said that evaluation of the report was not in pursuant to regulation 1/8 of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping (STCW) for Seafarers of 2010 (Manila Amendments).
Where are the lapses?
Before implementation of the STCW 2010 (Manila Amendments) Bangladesh got six years (since 2004) to rectify the deficiencies or could at least communicate with the IMO in line with the IMO Maritime Safety Committee Circular (1/circ.1449). But they failed to do so.
Even after June 2013 the, report sent to IMO was not even proper and was backdated. The evaluation report was not correct and officials have mixed it up with audit report. Surprisingly, assessment of the competency examination by DOS for the purpose of evaluation was also confusing.
Monitoring of numerous institutes (Commodore Jobair approved 12 institutes and issued licence in just 14 months) by the DOS officials was not carried out. Even fabricated report made by instructors from two institutes on behalf of the DOS was noticed by the IMO and found illegal.
The Panel of Competent persons in the IMO noted that the second cycle report of independent evaluation of Bangladesh due in 2009 was previously communicated to the Secretary General of the IMO. In view of the adoption of the 2010 Manila Amendments it was necessary for Bangladesh to provide information on the measures taken to implement the 2010 Manila Amendments to the STCW convention and code in accordance with the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) circular.
Accordingly, the Panel has requested Bangladesh to conduct a fresh independent evaluation based on the current status in respect of implementation of the STCW Convention.
DG of Shipping Commodore Zakiur Rahman Bhuiyan told this correspondent over cell phone that he is yet to get all papers and some important documents need to be collected from the Marine Academy.
"I have been studying the papers and hope to submit the report on corrective actions to the IMO by the end of next week," he said.
