It’s time CPIB should start asking MPA questions too

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[TD="class: msgtxt"][h=2] It’s time CPIB should start asking MPA questions too [/h]

January 27th, 2012

In our marine industries, the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) handles all the rules and regulations in the sea and some of its staff handle the rules and regulations their own ways. The MPA can ” overlook ” an offence committed by a listed Co’s contractor for almost 6 years until I complained to a higher Authority. They then decided to charge them in court.
The best part was that this offence they had committed was linked to another 2 other offences which the MPA again had ” overlooked ” and my question is, is the MPA’s staff doing someone a big favour ? An unclass vessel carrying highly flammable and combustive cargo can sail in and out and around our port a few hundred times over about 6 years and our ever reliable MPA can ” overlook ” this deadly matter. What if the ship had collided in our port or exploded when transferring its cargo to another vessel or at a wharf?
The MPA charged the owner of the vessel but failed to charge its handling agent and the captain of the vessel and she happened to be registered in Singapore. The beautiful question here is, how does the agent apply permits for her movements over this period of time? Did the agent produce fake certificates or make false declarations or maybe she did not even have any approvals from the MPA to begin with?
All its crew members working aboard did not know about the unauthorized passage way the ship was traveling and if there were any accidents, the crew members would not be covered by any insurance and I think our Ministry Of Manpower will have a lot of answering to do.
I think it is time the CPIB should start asking MPA questions about this serious matter and this could turn out to be another SLA’s case.
God Bless The Crew Members!
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Eddie Tan
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