Common ISM audit findings
ISM audits are important for ensuring ships comply with international maritime conventions. Issues identified during audits often stem from unclear procedures, poor documentation practices, or a lack of internal verification.
Learn more about some of the common findings from Maritime NZ ISM audits.
Some common findings from Maritime NZ ISM audits include:
- Not ensuring each ship is appropriately manned to encompass all aspects of maintaining safe operations on board (ISM Code Clause 6.2.2)
- Not ensuring procedures are established ensuring new personnel and personnel transferred to new assignments are given a proper familiarisation of their duties (ISM Code Clause 6.3)
- Not having established procedures, plans, and instructions, including checklists as appropriate, for key shipboard operations, with various tasks defined and assigned to qualified personnel (ISM Code Clause 7)
- Not ensuring all staff participate in emergency drills and exercises for emergency situations (ISM Code Clause 8.2)
- Not implementing procedures that provide measures ensuring corrective actions of non-conformities, including measures to prevent recurrence (ISM Code Clause 9.2)
- Not establishing procedures ensuring that a ship is maintained in conformity with the provisions of the relevant rules and regulations and with any additional requirements which may be established by the company (ISM Code Clause 10.1)
- Not identifying equipment and technical systems, for which the sudden operational failure of which may result in hazardous situations, as well as promote measures aimed at promoting reliability of such systems (ISM Code Clause 10.3)
- Not maintaining procedures to control all documents and data relevant to the ship’s safety management system, including that valid documents are available in all relevant locations, changes to documents are reviewed, approved, and disseminated by authorized personnel, and obsolete documents are promptly removed (ISM Code Clause 11)]