But what about consultancy? Ethically unable to provide both advice and certification at the same time, members of IACS (International Association of Classification Societies) tried by different schemes and methods to ensure either through a “sister company” system in charge of the consultancy and the class itself in charge of certification for example, but indeed this did not go down well at all with IMO!


As a result, a need for consultants to help companies and crews to apply the ISM code became necessary. I admit it was a classification society (and not the worst) that introduced me at the time to this new job. Having tried all types of transport or maritime operations over the years (including passenger transport and offshore oil activities), I find myself tacking stock of a career which will be soon coming to an end. It is far from easy to predict who will be our successors, but I think (I hope) I have done the necessary for that!


An article such as this begins with the job title itself: What is an ISM consultant?


With the code as a reference and a great experience of 22 years behind me, I can try to summarise this job.


It’s all about...


1) Auditing This means measuring discrepancies between the standardised reference


(ISM code) and the practices of the company. The ISM consultant therefore proposes an internal audit carried out in the form of a conformity and/or operational diagnosis.


And if at the beginning we start with a blank page including for the old companies, we are called in to update a safety management system (SMS) that has already


1


been certified as compliant, but which functions more or less yet sometimes drifts at the discretion of successive managers. So, we sometimes have to go back to basics and take the code, chapter by chapter, to ensure that compliance does still exist!


2) Expertise The company calls us because we are “experts” ie with « experience » in the field of auditing. ISM experience nowadays means practicing the code in almost all areas. This is by no means easy, but a very solid knowledge of the code and its requirements should help to get you started.


3) Propose In your contract there is a diagnosis of conformity of the application of ISM procedures but also a component to propose « corrective actions ». Sometimes we propose a global solution. It is often during the establishment of a safety management system that we intervene, We might propose an original SMS that has proved itself and adapt it to the company based on its initial safety culture in the type of marine activities concerned.


4) Training Initial and continuous training is increasingly seen as the key to improving the safety culture; we therefore integrate it systematically into our propositions. It was so obvious that it was forgotten


at the birth of the ISM Code. When I say forgotten, I mean “shunted” because it was not made obligatory! William O’neil, IMO’s former Secretary General “Emeritus” remained so traumatized by this that he reminded us in his order - Please avoid the same oversight - in the prologue when we were working on the text of the ISPS code.


ISM and ISPS training is our expertise.


It is important to note that when the amendments to STCW 95 came into force, it became apparent that special training (Rule V) also required some expertise. The training centres naturally turned to us, particularly for the training of personnel (other than seafarers) of passenger ships.


Today, where there is a screaming need especially after the results of the investigation into the sinking of the COSTA CONCORDIA. We are in the market with solid references, and above all, a reputation for credibility that not all training centres have despite their respectable flag approval. It’s amazing, these special training courses are oddly the unpopular ones in a profession that nevertheless still prefers specialisation to polyvalency ... again a paradox. Even well-known maritime reviews often forget them in their annual special training issue!


The Report • December 2018 • Issue 86 | 63


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