1 The Maritime Safety Committee, at its seventy-fourth
session (30 May to 8 June 2001) and the Marine Environment Protection
Committee, at its forty-sixth session (23 to 27 April 2001), acknowledging
that, in the process of transition to the Harmonized System of Survey
and Certification (HSSC) under the SOLAS, MARPOL and Load Line Conventions,
it has become evident that it is sometimes difficult on the pre-HSSC
certificates, and in certain cases not possible on certificates issued
under the HSSC, to find information on the date of completion of the
survey on which the certificate in question and its validity is based,
agreed that when the date of issue of a certificate does not correspond
with the associated survey, all certificates should clearly indicate
when the associated survey was completed. The primary purpose of this
indication is to provide port State control officers and other parties
with clear and unambiguous information.
2 Conscious of the time needed to effect the appropriate
amendments to the form of the certificates issued under the HSSC;
realizing that any amendments to the form of pre-HSSC certificates
are no longer possible; and recognizing that it would be advantageous
for all the parties involved to provide in the certificates, as soon
as possible, all the information that port State control officers
may need, the Committees invited flag Administrations, in the interim
and when appropriate, to endorse, or authorize their recognized organizations
to endorse, the relevant certificates with the following words: