The Organisation of American States (OAS) is funding an assessment of the training needs of port security officers at wharves in Guyana to ensure they are compliant with the regulations outlined in the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code.
The opening ceremony for the assessment project was held at the Boardroom of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) in Kingston yesterday. The assessment lasts until the end of the week.
The assessment will set the stage for the formulation of tailored training programmes for security personnel which will be done during the first quarter of 2008.
Director of Ports and Harbours at MARAD Taig Kalicharran told this newspaper that the assessment is being conducted by consultants under contract from the OAS in collaboration with MARAD.
According to Kalicharran, the assessment will be aimed at the security staff of the port facilities that would have been certified before the implementation of the ISPS on July 1, 2004.
Teams of auditors from the United States Coast Guard make visits, sometimes unannounced, to Guyana to assess the efficiency and compliance to the code by the shipping companies.
The last such US Coast Guard audit took place in March this year.
The ISPS Code was made fully effective from July 1, 2004 as a way of safeguarding ships and port facilities against the threat of global terrorism.
The code has its genesis in an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) meeting in December 2002, a little more than a year after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
As a result of the code, access to wharves has been severely restricted, with visitors being required to wear access passes at all times, specific to the area to which they are going.
In some cases too, employees are subject to access restriction. Wharves also have had to install 10-foot high fences, cameras, adequate lighting and monitoring systems. Among the agencies represented at the opening ceremony were the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), Shipping Association of Guyana, MARAD as the Designated Authority, the Guyana Coast Guard and the Immigration Department.
