New audit leaders at the ready

Auditing IMO Member States to assess how effectively they administer key IMO instruments is an important part of the Organization’s work to create a regulatory framework for the shipping industry that is universally adopted and implemented.

To support this process, new audit team leaders were trained under IMO’s Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS) at a course held at IMO Headquarters, London (14-17 October). The course involved thirteen auditors* who had been part of audit teams under the Scheme between 2016 and 2019 and are now ready to act as audit team leaders in future audits.

The training addressed an increased demand for audit team leaders to conduct up to 25 audits of Member States per year, which became mandatory from January 2016 and are carried out in accordance with the overall audit schedule. The course has been designed to further develop skills in preparing, conducting and reporting from audits in accordance with the Framework and Procedures for the IMO Member State Audit Scheme (resolution A.1067(28)) and using the IMO Instruments Implementation (III) Code (resolution A.1070(28)) as the audit standard.

The course is the third to take place since the introduction of the Audit Scheme. All Member States are required to undergo a mandatory audit within the 7-years audit cycle – in accordance with the Scheme and to-date, 72 mandatory audits have been carried out.

On conclusion of the training course, a two-day Auditors’ Meeting was held (17-18 October) for IMSAS auditors and audit team leaders – the first such meeting since the Scheme became mandatory in 2016. The meeting, attended by 36 participants from 29 Member States, provided a forum for the auditors to interact and share their unique audit experiences under IMSAS, with a view to further harmonize and improve those practices going forward, including through a revision of the current “Auditors Manual”. In addition, IMO collected feedback and suggestions for further improvements in administering the Scheme.

* Auditors nominated by: Argentina, Belgium, Ecuador, France, India, Liberia, Mauritius, Morocco, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United States of America and Uruguay.