On 16 December, eighteen government agencies signed the covenant ‘Inspections on board ocean-going vessels’ in order to achieve better coordination of the work. It is a matter of reforming the supervision, leading to efficiency advantages and less hassle for the business community.
Firstly, the covenant relates to the inspections in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The idea is that, at a later stage, vessels will be inspected in the same way in other Dutch ports too. The covenant is in line with the ‘Supervision Reform Programme’ in which the Cabinet stated its ambition to modernise administrative control. The coordination of the work focuses on regulations, compliance; the allocation of the monitoring capacity; drawing up a joint inspection programme on the basis of a joint risk analysis; coordination when it comes to administering supervision from one regional coordination centre in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the mutual exchange of data and the results of inspections.
In the last few months, the agencies involved have paid a great deal of attention to preparing working agreements so that, from 1 January 2010, the new (joint) working method can be launched.
Agencies involved
Amsterdam, Beverwijk, Rotterdam, Velsen, Zaanstad; Transport, Public Works and Water Management Inspectorate, Royal Netherlands Military Constabulary; National Police Services Agency – Water Police division; Rotterdam-Rijnmond Police/Seaport police; Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management; Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority and the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment inspectorate.
162,000 inspections
In 2007, research showed that 24 different monitoring agencies together carried out 72 different kinds of inspections in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. This involved a total of approximately 162,000 inspections, 44,000 of which took place on board ocean-going vessels. More at Port of Rotterdam >> |
March 12, 2010 ~ worldmaritimenews.com ~ 
