THE NATIONAL Maritime Safety Authority (NSMA) has not grounded any vessel belonging to the Lutheran Shipping company nor declared it unseaworthy.
It has also denied that a Luship vessel it inspected, the mv Maneba, was defective.
And it is now going to conduct an inspection on another vessel, the mv Momase, which is berthed at the Voco Point wharf for the last four days and is being cleaned up for inspection.
It has denied having been influenced to target Luship vessels.
NMSA’s general manager Chris Rupen and Lutheran Shipping executive manager Joe Inara said in separate statements that the Maneba was at the slipway in Madang, refuting reports that it was grounded.
Another vessel, the catamaran mv Gejamsao, has been at the slipway for the past six months awaiting new propellers after they were dented by logs along the coast of Bukawa, Morobe province.
News reports portraying a concentration of attention by NMSA on Lutheran Shipping were brushed aside.
Mr Rupen and other officers within the NMSA stressed that their survey on ships were a purely at random and wasn’t confined to any particular shipping company.
“What actually has happened was that NMSA had some issues with the survey certificate and other safety requirements with regards the Momase Express, which was a result of neglect,” Mr Rupen said.
“The NMSA surveyor in Lae, in the course of carrying out routine safety inspections, pointed these out to the company and following discussions with the company management, the vessel will undergo survey in Lae today and statutory certificates issued once all non-compliant issues have been rectified to the satisfaction of NMSA,” he said.