Business | Shipping
Egyptian acquittal hurts global code
The acquittal in an Egyptian criminal court of the owner of the ro-ro ferry Salam Boccaccio that sank in the Red Sea in February 2006 has understandably caused anger and protest among the families and friends of the 1,034 people who perished in the accident.
- By Frank Kennedy, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:49 August 10, 2008
The acquittal in an Egyptian criminal court of the owner of the ro-ro ferry Salam Boccaccio that sank in the Red Sea in February 2006 has understandably caused anger and protest among the families and friends of the 1,034 people who perished in the accident.
Four other defendants (including the son of the owner) were also cleared of charges, but one sentence of six months was handed down to the master of another ferry for failing to expedite measures to save survivors.
This single conviction belies the extent of responsibility for such a loss of life and appears to be 'token' since its recipient had no apparent connection with the root causes of the tragedy. In the light of what is known about the ship and the conduct of the emergency response procedures that were (or were not) implemented, it is unsurprising that scuffles took place in the court after the verdicts were announced.
However, there is a much more worrying aspect to the outcome of this case in that one of the absolute and fundamental principles of the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (the ISM Code) has been undermined - that of clear and unequivocal accountability to the very highest levels of management in the process of loss-prevention management within a ship-operating company.
Safety management system
The ethos of the establishment of a safety management system (SMS) within a company requires that company to develop and implement procedures to ensure that onboard and onshore tasks, activities and conditions that affect safety (and also the environment) are properly planned, organised and executed, both in accordance with company and legislative requirements.
Furthermore, part of this SMS ethos is an extremely clear and distinct requirement for the owners and operators of ships to exercise unequivocal duty-of-care for all persons in their charge and the burden of this responsibility on those that operate passenger ships is the greatest but unfortunately also the easiest at which to fail. For this reason, the conduct of safety management on these ships must be meticulously maintained.
While in this case it is purely conjecture whether a credible SMS was properly implemented before the disaster (minimal, interim certification had only been issued) and whether any plausible system of accountability existed between the ship and the company, the fact that the owner of the Salam Boccaccio was tried 'in absentia' because he travelled to Europe soon after the disaster may indicate the answers to any speculation.
Furthermore, the fact that the owner happened to be a member of the Upper House of the Egyptian Parliament at the time of the accident, may be of significant interest to those that have drawn their own conclusion. Many questions were raised after the accident and in addition to the effectiveness of the ship's SMS, the effectiveness of Port State Control that should exist to enforce safety standards before a ship may sail should be under scrutiny. Moreover, this underlines a malaise within the Asian region where under some authorities, marine standards are not properly enforced and corruption is endemic.
- The writer is a Dubai-based marine consultant.
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