PSC Procedure

Boarding Procedures

PSC Inspectors are boarding a ship without announcement and primarily check the ship's documents for completeness and validity.
If there are ant grounds to believe that the ship is substantially not conforming with the international conventions, the inspector will carry out an expanded inspection of the ship's codition and the required equipment.

The Master will receive an official inspection report consisting of Form A and B.
Form A lists the ship's details and the validity of the relevant certificates. Form B shows the list of deficiencies found(if any), with an action code which describes a timeframe for rectification for each deficiency.

If clear grounds are established that the ship forms a hazard to safety and/or the environment, the PSCO has the right to detain the ship in port until the respective deficiencies have been rectified and resurveyed.
The PSC authority will either resurvey by own inspectors or ask for a survey report from the Classification surveyor to verify the rectification. In case of a detention the PSC authority has the right to present a bill about their inspection activites. Any detention has to be reported as soon as possible by the authority to the flag state, the classification society and technical.
The data about the inspection and the given timeframe for rectification are entered in a computer system used by all memebers of a regional PSC agreement.

Action Codes

The given timeframe for rectification of each deficiency is commonly given in a coded form in the ispection report, called "action code".

[Tokyo MOU Action Codes]

• 30 = Grounds for detention.
• 17 = Masger instructed to rectify deficiency before departure
• 16 = to be rectified within 14 days
• 15 = to be rectifeid at next port of all
• 10 = deficiency rectified
• 40 = next port informed
• 50 = Flag state/consul informed
• 70 = Classification society informed

Inspection Campaigns

The regional PSC MOU meembers from time to time agree to carry out special inspection campaigns for a period of generally 3 months.
Within such campaigns special attention will be laid on certain details during the regular inspections held onboard.
Following campaigns have been carried out in the past:

• Inspection of bulk carrier cargo holds on structural safety
• Inspection of crew accommondation acc. ILO Convention No. 147
• Inspection of ISM implementation

Further campaigns will be announced in advance in the publication of the PSC MOU offieces or under title Latest News.