Certificates of competency: Are they authentic? Update

Fuente: MCA

► 27th December 2006: The UK maritime and coastguard agency (MCA) have issued a press release giving details of a prosecution for two false entries in a seaman’s discharge book. The managers of the ships named in the discharge book confirmed that the person had not been on board for the time claimed. If this fraud had been successful it would have resulted in an inadequately trained person having the capability to command any Merchant vessel.

► 16th November 2006: The UK maritime and coastguard agency (MCA) have issued a press release stating that a Ghanaian national has been deported after twice applying to study for a certificate of competency using a fraudulent seaman’s discharge book and watchkeeping certificates.

► 22nd August 2006: The UK maritime and coastguard agency (MCA) have recently published details of the cancellation of the certificates of competency of three engineering officers for dishonest abuse of the examination system. Two of the engineers were found to have completed examination papers to be passed off as the work of the third.

► 19th May 2006: It has recently been estimated that fraudulent certificates of competency are detected:

10% at the recruitment and employment stage
75% by administrations when assessing exam applications
15% by port state control or flag state inspections

The IMO maritime safety committee (MSC) are considering (15/05/06) a submission from the UK which suggests that:

► in most cases fraud could have been prevented and appropriate action taken if the certificate had been verified, as a matter of routine, with the issuing administration by the employer or manning agent before employing the seafarer concerned

Types of fraud a ship operator should consider include:
► counterfeit certificates
► alterations to genuine documents
► inaccurate, falsified or duplicated sea service
► cloning or impersonation
► obtaining certificate by exam fraud