1. Delegations of government inspections falls generally into two categories: (1) those related to compliance with the various international Conventions (SOLAS, MARPOL, Tonnage Load Line, etc) and which are now increasingly contained in a formalized delegation of authority document complying with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Resolutions: A.739(18) -Guidelines for the Authorization of Organizations Acting on Behalf of the Administration and A.789(19) -Specifications on the Survey and Certification Functions of Recognized Organizations Acting on Behalf of the Administration; and (2) delegations of national requirements/regulations that have evolved over the years and are contained in various sections of national laws and codes. The extent of these regulations and any subsequent delegations connected with them vary from nation to nation and generally are more extensive in the regulations of the traditional maritime nations of the mid-twentieth century (US UK etc) and were created prior to the development of the current various international conventions with their supporting requirements and guidelines. In this regard, more and more of the delegations in item (2) are being reformatted and renewed in line with the aspects of item (1) although this is a rather time consuming effort in the nations with extensive sets of national regulations such as the United States.
All aspects of the United States government are progressing a major Regulatory Reform effort with a view toward accepting industry and international standards and related services, where feasible, as replacements for the traditional national regulatory prescriptive requirements and government services. In this regard, ABS, as well as numerous other organizations, are potentially effected.
The US Coast Guard is the primary government agency overseeing Maritime Safety in the United States. Attached is a 2 page synopsis of the evolution of delegations from the USCG to ABS during the period 1970's through mid-1990's The current ABS/USCG Memorandum of Understanding dated 12 January 1995 provides the revised board agreement which is the basis for more specific delegations. USCG Navigation and Inspection Circular (NVIC) 10-82 Change No.1 dated Sept 1989 provides the general extent of the delegations concerning plan review and inspection services; in addition, there is recent USCG/ABS pilot program titled the "Alternate Compliance Program (ACP)" as outlines in NVIC 2-95 dated June of 1995 which provides for more extensive delegations to ABS on certain US vessels. Oversight and Quality control are increasingly addressed in these documents.
3. The standards applied to fire extinguishers as well as other specific equipment for use aboard merchant vessels are contained in 46 CFR 159 through 164, 400 plus pages - "Subchapter Q" of the Code of Federal Regulations. The USCG, in turn, published "Equipment Lists"' "Items approved, Certified or Accepted under Marine Inspection and Navigation Laws"
