Chairman of the Commission on Economy, Budget and Finance Radu Marian said at a commission meeting on Wednesday that the authorities have been making efforts for several years to get off the Paris Memorandum blacklist, passing laws, “And where are we now? Have we made any progress? I hope we are already in the ‘gray zone’?”.
Igor Zaharia, the agency’s director, regretfully admitted that Moldova is still on the “black list” and the main problem is the small number of staff at the Maritime Agency and low salaries.
“The Paris Memorandum blacklist is a kind of indicator that shows that the ‘port state’ should pay attention to the maritime authorities to ensure safety on board ships. The minimum required staff of the Maritime Agency should be 95. Currently, according to the staffing table, the agency has 45 units, of which only 21 are staffed. This job does not attract specialists, because the pay in the sector is much higher: a ship captain receives from 10 to 15 thousand euros per month and cannot work for a salary of 15 thousand lei,” Zaharia explained.
Radu Marian, however, believes that the problem is not only about salaries: “I look at the gray list and there are countries where salaries are certainly lower. I can assure you that Sierra Leone has lower salaries than us, but they are higher on the ranking.”
On the response that Sierra Leone is outsourcing the court management process, the PAS MP said, “So there are solutions. …We need to find solutions to move up in that ranking without doubling the staff because you have to be realistic.”
MP Petru Burduja, PSRM member of the commission, believes that if the international convention stipulates that there should be a certain number of employees, then there should be – for the sake of passengers’ safety and other important points.
“And whether they are many or few – it is incorrect to discuss this. Do we want to develop maritime activities or not?!”, Burduja asked rhetorically.
In April this year, a roadmap of necessary measures was approved, but with insufficient financial resources, events are developing slowly. In the spring of next year, the authorities promise to present the first report on how Moldova is getting off the Paris Memorandum’s “blacklist”, which it was placed on in 2018 due to the large number of violations detected during inspections of vessels flying its flag and frequent ship delays.
The Paris Memorandum is an international agreement of understanding on port state control of ships.
