The Liberian International Ship and Corporate Register (LISCR) is taking measures to make sure the Liberian Registry returns to the United States Coastguard Qualship 21 programme.

Qualship 21 recognises shipping’s elite flag states in terms of port state control (PSC) performance in the US over a rolling three-year period.

Liberia, the world’s second-largest ship register, is among four international ship registers to fall off the latest annual list announced by the USCG this month.

LISCR, which managers the Liberian Registry, is contesting a number of port state control detentions which, if successful, it claims could see it make a quick return to the list.

LISCR chief operating officer Alfonso Castillero said he has already taken measures to improve Liberia's PSC performance.

“First of all, LISCR will be getting back Qualship 21 next year. This is due to our great efforts and investments in launching the first and only flag state dynamic detention prevention program, as well as having hired several regional compliance officers in the USA,” he said.

Castillero explained that LISCR has a PSC risk analysis program, which it deployed in the third quarter of 2019 and has already started to show results.

LISCR has also hired ex-USCG officers to build up its regional compliance management team, which is now represented on every US coast and at key international ports.

Castillero said a number of its previous detentions are now under review by the USCG. “We will return to Qualship very quickly, either by winning our appeals, of which we still have three under review and which would change our statistics, or because we have successfully reduced our detentions so much in such a short time,” he said.

He also points out that the USCG Qualship 21 is calculated on tight margins. The difference between targeted and quality flag states, which are listed on the Qualship 21 programme, is a detention ratio of just 0.08%.

“ That’s it. About one tenth of a percent. This is really not much of a threshold at all. And one more detention for some of the other quality flags, or one less for us, and it is swapped around,” he said.

Liberia had 19 detentions out of 1,119 inspections and 1,139 additional security exams.

In 2019 an increased focus on ISM issues by the USCG, he said, led to an increase in detentions linked to an unnamed Liberian-registered owner, who has now left the flag .

“Our administration felt that we had to change our approach drastically from the previous way as the Coast Guard itself had also greatly changed their measures and thresholds; and we had to do so in a way that wouldn’t burden ship owners with additional costs,” Castillero said.