 Hello and welcome to Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. I am Johnny B. St. Joseph. IMSAS, the International Maritime Organization Mandatory Audit Scheme. As a member state of the International Maritime Organization, St. Lucia is obligated to participate in a mandatory IMO audit. The audit in turn provides St. Lucia with a comprehensive and objective assessment of how effectively it administers and implements mandatory IMO instruments which are covered by the scheme. And today, to tell us a little bit more about the scheme and how St. Lucia actually benefits for being part of the scheme, I'm joined by Mr. Christopher Alexander, who is the Director of Maritime Affairs at the St. Lucia A&C Port Authority. So first of all, thank you for joining us today, Mr. Alexander. Thank you for inviting Slasper to come and give some information based on the audit. And again, the audit is being done by various member states of the IMO. And before it was voluntary, however, the IMO has now made that audit system mandatory for all member states within the IMO. And St. Lucia as a member state right now, we are obligated to undergo that audit. And the Ministry of Infrastructure, which is our parent ministry, they actually sign on with the IMO for the semester to be audited in May, on May the 7th. And coming out of that audit, it's basically like a SWOT analysis, wherein we will determine our strengths, our weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within the maritime sector of St. Lucia. And maritime is not basically Slasper or my department. Maritime is like a cross-sectional area of St. Lucia. It entails the fisheries department, the fishers. It entails tourism through cruise ships coming into our country, carrying our visitors. It also entails the environmental sector as well, in terms of NIMO, in terms of solid waste, because vessels carry waste as well. So you have all those various agencies, as well as the enforcement being the police and more particularly the marine police unit, which is almost our coast guard. So you have all those agencies coming together right now. And they will be audited by the IMO to see as to how St. Lucia is implementing the conventions that we have signed on to. And again, that will again also affect in terms of our economic life, which is shipping as well of St. Lucia. Okay, brilliant. Now, one of the things that you mentioned there is the fact that St. Lucia is a member of the IMO. First of all, just tell us a little bit about what exactly is the IMO and exactly when did we actually become a member. Okay, great. So the IMO is the National Maritime Organization. And they are almost like the sister organization of the United Nations. So you have the United Nations. They propagate different conventions and laws. And then you have the IMO, which is maritime based. And in the late seventies, St. Lucia actually became a member of the IMO. And the IMO basically, they produce different conventions. And then the member states are supposed to bring those conventions into national legislation. So our legal draft department has a critical role to play in terms of not deciding on to the conventions, because the conventions, they have obligation that you have to adhere to when you sign on to the convention. So St. Lucia, it's part of our obligation to follow up and for us to put that into our national legislation. So when the ship comes to St. Lucia, for example, the same law would apply across the board. So it's like the same law applies to all member states. So it doesn't matter if you are US or St. Lucia. It's the same law applies. Hence, you may get developing countries because of their finances. They are able to easily implement those legislation. And you may find small St. Lucia. We still have to implement the obligations of the convention. But it's a matter of safety and security. And then we will be telling the ships there, even if you're at the US, you can feel safe. If you come to St. Lucia, your boat will be safe. Our waters are chattered. We have security within our ports under the ISPS code. So the IMO is basically that international body that protects shipping and maritime environment as well. Now, again, going back to the audit scheme, as you were saying, it's now mandatory. But I believe that before it was voluntary. So exactly why did it become mandatory? And in regards to when it was voluntary, was everybody actually still doing the audit or was it a case of some member states weren't doing it? Well, exactly. Because I mean, most people, when we hear about an audit, some people have a schism about audits. So you find they will not get enough buying through it being voluntary. And when you realize in terms of the benefit that can be accrued, when people are under when they audit, they say, OK, right now, all countries now have to be audited because some countries, they were trying to delay being audited. And then the audit in itself, it's not just to expose your country in terms of what your weaknesses are. It's also opportunity for your country to benefit because you can show, OK, here's where my weaknesses are. So maybe we need to allocate more resources in that area as well. And then if you can show the shipping community that our safe ports, more ships are likely to come to your country. If you can show that my environment is clean, more tourists are likely to come to your country and utilize your beaches, knowing that you have no marine pollution on your beaches or the seas. So there's a lot of win-win situation in terms of doing that, that audit, even as well as in terms of opening up training schools. So if you realize, OK, solution now, we have met all those obligations now, more likely more investors will come in and say, OK, we want to open a maritime school in St. Lucia. And then our seafarers right now will also benefit. And then you have a decrease in unemployment because right now in St. Lucia, you can train persons right now and you can certify them right now. They're going to work on the cruise ships and in other boats as well. So there's a lot of benefits to St. Lucia. OK, that's brilliant. Now, so you actually told us a little bit about why it is actually important to be audited. But how is St. Lucia administrating the mandatory instruments right now? Well, as of now, we've silent to basically the mandatory conventions. So you have the conventions that the IMO actually brings out. And then St. Lucia have to put in the national laws based on those conventions. And the issue at hand, maybe in many of the Caribbean islands, including St. Lucia, is in terms of insufficient maritime legal drafters. OK, so you have to have a skill into not any lawyer, but you have to have a legal drafting background. So those persons right now have to draft those laws so that we can implement it in St. Lucia. And we can also have an enforcement arm as well. So that's where the weaknesses is in terms of St. Lucia and many other Caribbean islands. In terms of putting those conventions into national law, then you can have fines, you can have penalties, and you can have policies as well based on your national legislation. So we're not all there, but we're getting there right now. OK, brilliant. But we're going to just stop for a little break. And then when we come back, we're going to talk some more about the audit scheme and such like. OK, so join us after the break. Family time is a healthy time and a healthy family eats smart. 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So Ms. Alexander, tell us a little bit about the event that took place on the 7th of May. Exactly. How did that relate to the audit that's actually in the process of taking place right now? Well, the actual meeting that I was sent in, three auditors. Those are professionals trained by the IMO. And they came to St. Lucia basically to engage the different sectors of government, of NGOs as well, and basically to sensitize them in terms of what the audit was all about. And they went to the various ministries and had a one-on-one interaction with them as to what their concerns were, how they were implementing the various laws and conventions, and what areas they needed assistance in terms of ensuring that those were made more efficient. And coming out of that engagement, a report will be sent to the Ministry of Infrastructure and the PS as to what areas, what were signature doing in terms of efficiently and the other areas that we needed to have full engagement with. And there will be a three to four-year window wherein the IMO will give signature the opportunity for us to put measures in place to correct any deficiencies or shortcomings that are obtained during the audit. So, we have a chance right now to actually get ourselves 100% in compliance with the IMO conventions and what we have signed on to. Okay. All right. Now, again, you had talked about the expected benefits for St. Lucia, because you talked about we could ask you to bring ourselves up to the standard by way of training and such things and such things. But can you tell me very generally what are the main areas of the audit? Because I know there's actually a lot of different areas that are actually going to be touched on. Okay. So, let me look at a few major conventions. For example, we have Marple or Marine Pollution. And again, they'll be engaging the NEMO, Solid Waste, Buckeye, you know, we have a huge oil depot at Buckeye. They'll say what our responses will be if there's an oil spill. So, we have already signed on to Marple and now we have the air pollution as well. In terms of when the ships come in there, what fuel do they use? What's the level of sulfur content? So, that'd be one area they'll be looking at. There are other critical areas will be in terms of what we call standard of training for certified watchkeepers. And that will show in how we certify our seafarers, because right now, because of our unemployment issue, we can get persons trained to go and work on the cruise ships, to go and work on our local boats as well. As of now, you have persons going to other countries like Jamaica and Tigger to do that type of training. So, if you're going to do that training locally, it will save persons, I mean, huge amounts of money. So, they will say, okay, how do we, how are we going about implementing that, how we can improve upon that implementation. So, that's the other critical area. And the other one I would like to mention is in terms of the load line and tonnage. Basically, all ships have what we call a load line and basically tells you what amount of cargo that ship can carry. So, there's a line that goes around the ship and if that line is submerged, you know that the ship is overloaded. So, that's something to say, okay, how are we implementing those loads? So, those are three of the major areas that will be visited. And the final one will be in terms of safety of life at sea. In terms of how would the coast guard respond to the search and rescue. So, when our fishers go missing, how would the coast guard react to it there? Do they have the requisite resources to react to it there? Because you have to ensure that when our boaters go out, they know that there's an agency that can come and assist them when they're out at sea. So, all those areas will be examined and again, it will determine what our weaknesses are, what our strengths are and how they can improve upon those areas. Okay, well, Tbq, you're giving me an education here. So, let me just ask you though, would those relate directly to the nine mandatory instruments that are to be audited as well? Yes, exactly. That relate straight back to that? Yes. Okay, all right, no problem. Tell me a little bit about as well the different, are there different people, you were saying that especially for the event that happened there, are there different people that would be, that are also coming in apart from the auditors that came in for the event as well to take part in the audits? Okay, so in terms of the main IMU auditors, what we've done right now, like I said, we went across the spectrum in terms of the maritime sector and we brought in the shipping agents, we brought them on board as well. Okay. People like the coxswain companies, the huge agencies they are in as well. We also brought in NGOs because they have a part to play in terms of the maritime sector. So, you saw there's a government-based meeting. It's a meeting where we want to touch the lives of every organization, Ministry of Finance, the Edis Office, the tourism sector. So, basically we want everybody to have an input tool that will chart the way forward for the industrial maritime sector. It's important that government get the information that they can reparitize, they can allocate resources, both human resource and technical as well, to ensure that signature maximizes, okay, we are a part of entry and 90 percent of our trade is via shipping. Okay, and then if our ports are hampered, our ports are not efficient, our ports are not fully equipped, you can see the whole country, the whole island will suffer because we're not having the requisite resources in place for us to improve on shipping generally. Okay, all right. Now, we're running out of time, but before we do go, I just want to know is there anything you'd like to add in regards to the audit? Because as I said, this to me is really interesting to me because this is an education to me. The scheme is something I didn't know about and such like. So, I'm sure the audience would like to know more as well. So, I mean, is there anything that you would like to share with them in regards to the audit, even in saying, again, to just reiterate about why an audit like this is so important to St. Lucia on a whole as well? Yes. Again, the critical rationale for the audit is to determine in terms of and to let the world know because the audit, the results of the audit will be on the web. So, this can view it and say, okay, should I come to St. Lucia? Should my boat come to St. Lucia? Should my cruise ship come to St. Lucia? Okay, should I come invest in terms of the maritime schools in St. Lucia? So, that audit will give us in terms of show how transparent we are and how open we are in terms of accepting those other opportunities commercial employment wise into St. Lucia. If that's not done, think of what will be the repercussions in terms of boats not feeling safe to enter St. Lucia. But to say, there we are right now, we're not conforming to international standards. And again, it's an obligation. The conventions will sign on to buy St. Lucia. And it's our government's obligation to ensure that the laws are there to support the convention that we have signed on to. Right. Well, thank you, Mr. Alexander. Thank you so much for joining us. And please come back again, because to me this is so interesting. This is really good, this is really good stuff. Okay. So, thank you for joining us. And thank you everybody out there for joining us on issues and answers. Do stay tuned to the National Television Network. However, for now, this is Jolene Bisa-Joseph saying goodbye.