The Executive Director of Sierra Leone Maritime Administration (SLMA) Alhaji Wuroh Jalloh has said that he inherited a very difficult challenge in the registration of sea vessels by Sierra Leone.
He made this disclosure yesterday in his office when interviewed over a recently seized Sierra Leone Flag vessel between France and England for drugs.
Explaining to Awoko, the Executive Director said this fishing boat in particular belongs to Sierra Fisheries and was registered in 2005 by SLMA and has a lifetime license, which he said is not correct.
We have so many of such vessels that have been given lifetime license, which cannot happen in any other country. At least these licenses that were issued should have been for five years so when it expires they will come back or find another country to register their vessels he explained.
“Also if they are caught doing the wrong thing, Sierra Leone’s name would not be mentioned because when the license expires the vessel will have no registration.”Mr Jalloh said upon investigation, Sierra Fisheries has to pay some guys or they leased the vessel to them so that they will operate the vessel until 2017. He said they started well with the vessel until they took it to doing drugs, which landed them in the police net. “Upon seizing the vessel, they found out it was carrying the registration of Sierra Leone, since 2005 when it was registered.”
The Executive Director said this is the problem they are now facing as they are trying to de-register all of those vessels that were registered in Sierra Leone flying the flag of convenience.
“Presently, I cannot tell you many of such vessels are out there carrying Sierra Leone registration, anyone we come across, we de-register it because in the first place I can’t tell why it was done and why the license were issued for a lifetime with no expiry date.”#He said all what his administration is doing now is to de-register all of those vessel and close the program once and for all because he said it has no benefit to the government but lots of embarrassment and problems. He said they are trying to start another program but he will not disclose yet until they have put all the modalities in place and made sure that it will be profitable to the nation.
Friday July 08, 2016
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