As the county’s maritime administration seeks to uphold its commitment in ensuring full compliance to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS) held on 02 to 09 October 2023, the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) conducted an Inter-Agency Root Cause Analysis Workshop on the Perceived Findings of the IMSAS in Clark, Pampanga on 08-10 November 2023.
Director Ramon C. Hernandez, MARINA IMSAS focal point, commenced the workshop by encouraging the attendees to take part in this undertaking.
“I encourage everyone to actively participate and continuously work towards our compliance with the III Code, which is expected to improve the Philippine implementation and enforcement of the mandatory IMO instruments, resulting in safe, secure, environmentally sound, efficient, and sustainable shipping.”
Ms. Precila C. Jara, Officer-in-Charge of the MARINA Overseas Shipping Service, started the workshop proper with the target setting and informed that the objective of the workshop is to engage the member agencies in a comprehensive discussion on the evaluation of the IMSAS findings to identify the root causes and to draft the Corrective Action Plan (CAP).
This was followed by IMSAS Consultant, Mr. Jose Venancio A. Vero Jr, who provided guidance to the group by reiterating the relevant provisions of the III Code in relation to the perceived findings of IMSAS.
Meanwhile, LCDR. Lorena Jasmin Lerio, Senior Internal Auditor at the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) with expertise in ISO 9001:2015, explained the value of root cause analysis from the viewpoint of an auditor.
Lastly, Director Hernandez presented the root cause process and the tools on how to generate and organize the potential causes and the corrective action implementation plan.
The workshop was done in plenary. After the preliminaries, representatives of agencies were grouped based on the four areas – Common Areas, Flag State, Sate and Coastal State, to discuss and evaluate the findings and come up with the necessary action plan.
Ms. Jara concluded the workshop by urging the Philippine maritime administration to continue to work as a team to enhance the group output to effectively address the audit findings until the submission to the IMO on the first quarter of 2024.
The said workshop was participated by the representatives from the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), Cebu Port Authority (CPA), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), NAMRIA, and Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and MARINA.