NAME: DHEERAJ KUMAR

STUDENT NO: 30222762

SHIPBOARD MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT

INTRODUCTION

On vessel MV Val Verde (Republic of Cordovia flagged vessel), there is a problem of

The report area would be; Overspends on victualling by Master, Over budget problem
always, Team building, Safety culture, Safety, etc’s. The report is going to be about
personnel management as well as ship management, budgetary control onboard,
employment law and SMS. This audit is going to be about disciplinary and crew performance
management onboard. There will be ‘a first party audit’ which is also termed as system
audit. This would involve plan, procedures and work instructions. Audit will look after;

*Are people working in accordance with plans, procedures and instruction or not.

*Are the plans and procedures adequate to ensure effective control or not.

*Are the plans effective and the process objectives being met or not.

*Is Master is able to maintained budgetary control onboard and discipline onboard or not.

Master and C/E would be mainly involve in this internal audit. According to the case study
the most critical issue is ’budget problem’, on this Master does not know why the ship is
always over budget. So there will be a thorough inspection of all expenses including
provisions, ship maintenance related work, inventory, all expenses related to shipping, etc.
Managing is a great responsibility and ship is mainly managed by Master, it usually made up
of constraints, choices, and demands. It mainly involves: Inter-personal role, Informational
role and decision role, which is the captain’s responsibilities onboard.

Well the internal audit which will be coming onboard, It is the Master’s responsibilities to
manage it well and all documents and paper work should be ready before the day of audit.
This audit is very necessary for this vessel, as the current situation is not good. So for the
benefits of the company and crew, company took the right decision to do internal audit
onboard and sort out the all problems.

BACKGROUND
There are many problems happening onboard which includes; Financial, Safety,
Interpersonal, Disciplinary and Performance problems. This leads owners operating the
vessel at loss and also chief financial officer not happy because of always over budget. The
master used to be a transactional leadership style, he felt this would give good level of
control onboard. But things not went good in the end. There is not a good relation between
deck and engine department, they are not understanding each other well which cause
difficulties in work.

There is also one case, the chief mate, without fails, hands in the risk assessments and
permit for work done during the calendar month on time, but it has come to the master’s
attention that these almost certainly a purely paperwork exercise done the on the last day
of the month and do not reflect how actually takes on board. Now in this case there is a
mismanagement of work and needs delegation on decision making. There is need to know
about safety culture throughout onboard to all senior officers and engineers. Financial
problems cause due to bad management of expenses with no proper plan of savings and
also spending too much money on little use things. There should be a contingency plan for
all expenses and if there is a confusion or doubt, need to discussed with company/officers
well. The master should know to manage it properly. Safety problems cause due to improper
planning of risk assessment procedure and also careless work. There should be proper PPE
according to the work. Interpersonal problems is a common issues onboard, these can be
solve by regular meeting of crew while in tea breaks, general meetings, on board training
sessions, etc’s. Disciplinary and performance problems can cause a serious punishment if it
is against the law. Every person onboard must maintain the rules and regulations on board.
There should not be unlawful activities such as drugs and alcohol (on duty), etc and crew
must obey senior’s order.

The vessel runs with the combination of deck and engine teams, there should be good
communication and respect towards each other. So that working on vessel will go smoothly
throughout the year with no difficulty. Seniors should have participative leadership style
towards the crew, so that every person gets the chance to discuss their problems, which
leads to work properly. Seniors also must be acknowledged to all the machinery equipments
on deck, in bridge, in engine room; So that they can be able to sort out any predicaments.
Also if any accident happens onboard, every person should know their duties and work.
Therefore drill is very important on board regularly and at least first aid and normal rescue
operation should be known to all crew.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The origin of problems needs to be identified well and need to be implemented authoritative
sources to sort out the problems as soon as possible.

These problems are rising because of lack of good management, lack of creative thinking
and relevant decision making, senior’s irrespective decisions, lack of team building, No
proper budgetary control, not properly following employment rules and regulations, lack of
safety culture, no proper systematic risk assessment, not following properly SMS codes. The
consequences of these problems can affect very badly to crew as well as vessel and also to
the owner’s profit. There can be a chance of dismissal and redundancy to crew.
On contrast the potential solution measures of these problem as; there should be good
managerial decisions in any predicaments, good creative and decision making works, good
team building, proper management of budget by Master, budgetary control must be verify
properly until satisfactorily result, proper follow of employment protocol, crew work and rest
hours should be according to MLC, safe manning, holistic safety, good safety culture, regular
safety meeting onboard and drills, good systematic approach of risk assessment, good
follow up of ISM code and COSWP and there should be regular safety officials and general
meeting onboard.

Problems can be reduced if there is onboard discipline and proper management onboard. If
these two main factors works together then there would be very less chance of problems.
But those who breach the rules and regulations, punishments and warning should be given.
There should be informal warning if, mistake is forgiven and there should be formal warning
or written reprimand if, mistake is against the law. It is normal for seafarers to get stress and
strain because of hostile working conditions and confined environments. Thus, self-discipline
and responsible attitude should have to avoid professional mistakes. In this environment,
the need of discipline and good behaviour is very relevant. The Master must have the
directive leadership style as well as participative leadership style towards crew, So that
everyone will be well cooperative and works with discipline.

Another main part is ‘Budgetary Control’ to reduce the problem of over budget. There should
be financial reporting every year and it must contain annual report and accounts of every
expenses. Three accounting documents must be followed by Master as well as by senior
officers/engineers;

*The Balance sheet

*The profit and loss account

*The cash flow statement

Planning and Budgeting is very necessary onboard for;

*To provide a financial statement of objectives

*To identify claims upon, and the availability of resources

*To reveal future risks, such as potential cash-flow problems

*To provide a measure for actual performance

*To motivate crew to achieve budgeted objectives

Implementing of budget should be done properly by company, so that crew also gets satisfy
and they will also manage and maintain the things properly as like as home onboard. Also
another main part is ‘safety’ onboard. Company and seniors must ensure of safety of crew.
There working should be in proper PPE always on ship. Crew responsibility is also to talk
about safety matters such as if tools gets damaged, then immediately report to senior and it
should be kept away with damaged sign. The crew must be aware about the incident which
can be happen onboard, so that they can take preventive measures before work. And it is
also senior’s responsibility to measure overall safety onboard. There should be safety
management meeting onboard regularly, in which safety officials and safety representatives
must put their roles mainly to measures the risks of work.

All machinery parts and safety equipments should be maintained throughout the year, so
that after sign off any person, new person will get easily familiar and properly it can be used
again. The safety problems usually happens onboard, so there should be thorough lookout
everyday while working onboard and always checks of deck store equipments.

CONCLUSIONS

According to the case study seems management can’t be handle by Master, Audit is
necessary onboard. There should be proper audit procedures and open meetings with the
crew. There must be proper investigations procedure onboard. There is also need to be
discuss about ‘safe manning’ operation, where we need qualified and experienced seafarers
for the safety of crew, ship, cargo operations and marine environment. The person who
leads manning operations, they should have these capabilities; complex problem solving,
critical thinking, creativity, people management, co-ordination with other, emotional
intelligence, fast judgement/decision making, service orientation, negotiation and cognitive
flexibility. And some these capabilities also be followed by Master for budget control and as I
told in literature part above.

The all problems of financial, safety, interpersonal, disciplinary and performance generally
happened due to the lack of proper training. Even seniors also forget, so regular training and
meeting is needed onboard. Also there should be work and rest hours inspection, there
would be many reasons of incorrect reporting to be unlikely such as; fatigue, unpunctuality,
no proper rest, on board family responsibilities, indiscipline, etc’s. Also ‘Safety culture’ is
mandatory onboard and must be followed each day, the environment on the ships where
tasks requires; safety measures, safety beliefs, values and positive attitudes. Well the main
thing is about ‘Safe manning operations’ which is to ensure that a ship is sufficiently,
effectively and efficiently manned; to provide safety and security of the ship, safe navigation
and operations at sea, safe operations in port, prevention of human injury or loss of life, the
avoidance of damage to the marine environment and to property, and to ensure the welfare
and health of seafarers through the avoidance of fatigue. Apart from this the safe manning
document issued by the flag state that listing the numbers and qualifications required on the
ship. A safe manning document issued under the merchant shipping (safe manning, Hours of
work and Watch keeping).

Also there is managing expectations and crew development relationships between company
and crew depends upon the mutual expectations of inputs and outcomes from each other,
which concerns about; how the seafarers is treated by the company, what the seafarers put
into the job onboard, agreeing mutual transparent expectations, motivation and
management and training and development. There should be transparency of trust,
openness, awareness of facts/objectivity, empathy and openness of communication. Also
there should be good leadership quality among the seniors onboard to manage the crew.
There should be must participative leadership as well as directive leadership. In every work
team creativity thinking is necessary for better and fast result, so safety committee meeting
is always fruitful before execute of any work and also for the safety concerns for the entire
people onboard.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Master must consider the problems according to the disciplinary and performance
management. He must keep ready all the problems, which is needed to be listed before
audit and he also should keep ready the budget file. According to case study the main
problem is about of budget problem, Master regularly overspends on victualling. Another
problem is irrespective behaviour between deck and engine teams and risk assessment
work onboard. There is also safety related matter and crew management.

The Master must address the problems happening onboard which is; financial budget issues,
crew safety issues, interpersonal issues between the crew, indiscipline factor and crew
performance report onboard. The Master should be ready the audit arrangements as;
Arrange guides for the auditors, Master make sure about his junior officers and crew that
they understand the audit procedure and purpose of audit. This might well be done before
day of audit. The Master should be ensure that crew is aware about the importance of the
audit and also should be aware of the possible repercussions of non-conformities. There
should be arrangement of a cabin and sufficient space for audit team while on board.

There should be pre-planned of domestic arrangements, Master make sure it should be done
in sort way, so that auditors do not lose much time. Master should confirm hours of work as
well as establishment of health and safety requirements and checks of personnel
equipment. The Master should arrange the time and venue of the review meeting and also
make sure of confidentiality of meeting. Master and seniors make sure that senior petty
officer is aware of the audit and through them all other personnel. There should be time and
venue of the closing meeting. The master make sure the ship’s team and the audit team
should introduce themselves and also if there are any changes, they do not affect the
purpose and scope of audit, otherwise there can be costly exercise.

Apart from this all arrangements, Master and seniors must keep ready all the needed papers
for the audit. Master must be ensured especially about budget file and all balance sheet, it
must be updated and checked properly. Master make sure the budget report should have all
important report such as; trading days cost, off hire, gross trading income, owners
expenses, net trading income, crew cost, repair and maintenance, stores and spares,
insurance, franchise/uncovered average, dry docking and classification, modifications,
running costs, overhead, administration, loan interest, depreciation, profit and loss,
provision, paint/chemicals, ship parts/machines etc’s.

The master make sure the trading budget, which is the income generated by the commercial
activity of the vessel such as freight income, charter hire or passenger revenue, and the
costs of bunkers, agency fees and hold/tank survey fees , papers up to date systematically.
Master should also keep report of extra money which is given to those persons who do
sometimes high risk job and extra work on board. Master should be well clear about the
salary of crew, mean there should be no any confusion or mistake in crew salary report file.
In the end of the meeting after investigations, whatever the conclusions and reports would
have been given by the auditors, It must be well acknowledged and noted by the Master and
also by the senior officers/engineers. Afterwards, It is Master’s responsibility to inform to the
company with all evidence. Latter onwards Master and seniors should arrange the general
meeting with crew to discuss the audit reports.

REFERENCES:

https://bfc.instructure.com/courses/6273/pages/shipboard-management-index

https://bfc.instructure.com/courses/6273/pages/shipboard-management-lo2-1-dot-1-budgetary-control?
module_item_id=206786

https://bfc.instructure.com/courses/6273/pages/shipmasters-law-and-business-lo2-1-imo-codes?
module_item_id=206718