Graeme Reid, Technical Adviser – Marine at the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) looks at misperception and a ‘turning back the clock’ on duplication of marine surveys.

The industries IMCA members serve are constantly striving to remove unnecessary duplications of effort, and inefficiencies – no recreating of the wheel for them, or for us.

IMCA’s Common Marine Inspection Document (CMID) was launched in 1999 to provide standard formats for the inspection and auditing of offshore vessels. Its use globally helps promote safety and efficiency; and, importantly, it helps reduce the number of repeat inspections on individual vessels by providing a consistent, transferrable format which meets vessel operator and client requirements alike.

CMID evolved to become eCMID and IMCA now recognises only eCMID and eMISW (for small workboats) inspection reports that have been prepared by Accredited Vessel Inspectors (AVIs) and uploaded into the online database. No other versions are accepted.

There are currently 3,560 vessels registered on the eCMID database system; 4,200 active users of the database (active within the last six months); and at the end of January over 1,300 eCMID and eMSIW live reports (i.e. in date) on the system.

Add to this the 487 Accredited Vessel Inspectors (AVIs) in the scheme operated by the IIMS Marine Surveying Academy and we could surely say “Job done! It’s all smooth sailing”. However, several IMCA members started reporting instances of ‘double inspections’; all of them relating to Marine Warranty vessel suitability (MWS) surveys of vessels with existing eCMID audits. This was concerning for the existing eCMID relates primarily to the ‘marine platform’ – the vessel; whereas MWS surveys are in most cases undertaken because something is going to be installed by the vessel, or a specific piece of work is to be undertaken connected to lifting, pipe or cable lay, or diving, i.e. the vessel’s ‘mission’.

Members were reporting that this is where the doubling up was happening that suitability surveys were often close to, or in some cases identical to, an IMCA eCMID audit with little or no regard to the ‘mission specific equipment’ – the very thing that is of fundamental interest to the insurer.

Example survey documents supplied to IMCA had similar content and questions to that of the eCMID; and in some extreme cases the survey was performed by the same company and the same surveyor who had undertaken the eCMID audit weeks previously. In some examples a new set of findings was generated causing unnecessary workload and inefficiency to the vessel owner/operator and leading to doubts over surveyor competency.

IMCA took this issue to the Joint Rig Committee (JRC) – London Market Association and it was subsequently tabled for discussion at the JRC Survey and Engineering sub-committee. Recently the JRC fed back to IMCA their intention to update their guidance adding wording to reflect that MWS surveyors may use any supplementary documentation made available to them to augment their survey (for example, eCMID).

The JRC further highlighted that IMCA members should notify attending MWS Marine Warranty surveyors that eCMID audits exist, are fully available, and can be referenced / included as part of the report if deemed helpful to avoid any unnecessary repetition and inefficiency of the process.

This is a welcome step but may not prevent poor practice in some areas, therefore IMCA plans to monitor this situation and asks that practice of this type be reported enabling us to collate and approach the JRC in the future, if required.

We have published an Information Note for Members on the issue and urge Members to always inform MWS surveyors an eCMID (or eMISW) exists for the specific vessel and grant them permission to use it within their report; and for MWS surveyors to ask the simple question: “Do you have an eCMID?”

Working together will eliminate unnecessary duplication of effort.

Graeme Reid, Technical Adviser - Marine at IMCA