Work at Drydocks grounded

- Shipyard loses millions of cedis
- As Nigerians abandon tanker in dock

Commercial activities at PSC Tema Shipyard has grounded temporarily when on Friday morning, owners of a Nigerian registered tanker, MT BEKKIE refused to be drawn out of the dock to allow another Nigerian tanker, MT ADRIANA B to sail out of the dock after it underwent repair works. The crew abandoned the tanker as the dock was being flooded.

Incidentally, an American barge, Global Cheyenne, booked to undertake dry docking and repairs that could fetch the shipyard about $600,000, cannot enter due to the action taken by the Nigerians as a result of an entrenched position taken by management of the yard.

This is because, the Nigerian owners of MT BEIKIE suspected that once their 20,000 metric tonne Deadweight Ton (DWT) tanker went out, the shipyard would not re-?dock her into the yard to continue with repair works which they had been undertaking after several months’ delay at the dry-dock.

The shipyard had refused to enter into an agreement with owners of the tanker, HELKO MARINE SERVICES when demanded, to decide the specific time the tanker would be re-docked if she agreed to pull out of the dock.

The owners also wanted the shipyard to be responsible for anything that happened to the vessel so long as she remained outside the dock.

The Chronicle’s findings are that, ADRIANA B of less than 4,000 metric tonnes (DWT) had gone to a Tema High Court to compel MT BEKKIE to go out of the dock to enable her depart after work on her had been completed.

The High Court Judge, Mrs. Batara Ackah Ayensu, on January 21, 2004 ruled that it was the order of this court that two managing directors of plaintiff companies undertook to release the plugs immediately after the undertaking by the Managing Director of PSC Tema Shipyard, to enable the movement of MT ADRIANA B.

The court went on to say that the Managing Director of the shipyard was to undertake all due diligence in the undocking and re-docking of MT BEKKIE. The court further stated that, failure to do so would be a breach of the order and contempt and that, MT ADRIANA B was to be moved from the dock within seven days.

The Chronicle’s information is that, since the owners of MT BEKKIE did not trust any more verbal agreement from the management of the shipyard, they insisted that the undertaking must include assurance that the tanker would be re-docked but this was not done, so they went to seek redress at the Court of Appeal.

On Friday, two days from the High Court ruling, management of the shipyard, allegedly, without notice to MT BEKKIE, started pumping water into the dock to flood it so that both tankers could be drawn out. Owners of MT BEKKIE immediately ordered all her crew out of the vessel since the case was still pending in court.

The Chronicle’s investigations revealed that, on July 30, last year, a contractual agreement was reached between PSC Tema Shipyard Limited acting per its Chief Executive Officer, Rahim Em Jaafar, and HELKO MARINE SERVICES Ltd. of Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria, per its General Manager, Madam Mercy Oben, for drydocking and repair of MT BEKKIE.

Under the contract, the shipyard has agreed to execute the job and the two arrived at US$206,592,99 for the work initially agreed, provided the said price may be revised.

The terms of payment of the said dry-docking and repair works shall be that, the owner shall pay 50% deposit of the estimated cost of repairs for the proposed work to the shipyard before the scheduling and arrival of the vessel at the yard.

Due to a trades union impasse that hit the yard, the vessel eventually docked on November 8, 2003 after about five months’ delay, though owners of the tanker honoured their part of the agreement of payment of $100,000.

The dry-docking of the vessel was scheduled for November 27, 2003 after she spent twenty days in the docks.

As at January 14, 2004, work done on the vessel was not up to 40%, due to the lukewarm attitude towards work by the staff who wanted the Malaysian management out of the yard and so after 70 days in the dock, the owners of MT BEKKIE requested from the management of PSC Tema Shipyard that they wanted to engage the services of external contractors to execute the same job for which 50% of the cost had been paid. This was agreed to.

By this time, management had stopped payment of overtime for the staff and also halted work in the yard on Saturdays. The Chief Executive of the yard reportedly told representatives of owners of the tanker that he had no control of activities in the yard and that any problems they had should be directed to the local union of the Maritime and Dockworkers Union (MIDU) and when it was reportedly pointed out to the CEO that MT BEKKIE had not entered into any contract with the union, he would not listen.

Administrative work in the shipyard collapsed completely for about two months and so it became difficult to trust the boss, Rahim Jaafar.

Earlier, the CEO allegedly ordered work on MT BEKKIE to stop and personnel sent to work on MT ADRIANA docked ahead, and it took legal counsel to talk to the CEO to rescind his decision.

Just as all was set for work to resume, Jaafar again ordered stop of work, though the scope of job left was estimated to take only 12 days to complete. So when management wanted the tanker sent out and re-docked after MT ADRIANA had left, the tanker owners entertained some misgivings, hence they called for an assurance in the form of undertaking.

The CEO of the yard is reported to have flown to Malaysia when The Chronicle visited the yard. The Production Manager, Bless Kporvi, who allegedly ordered that the dock be flooded was also absent from the once renowned shipyard. The executives of the local union declined to comment on the issue, describing it as purely between management and owners of MT BEKKJE.

In the meantime, a huge American barge, Global Cheyenne, is waiting a few meters away from the dock to undertake repairs, which presence each time enriches the shipyard over half a million dollars.

Aside that, the yard is reported to be losing several thousands of dollars for want of use of the drydock due to this impasse. PSC Tema Shipyard, formerly Tema Shipyard and Drydock Corporation (TSDC) is said to be about the largest drydock in Africa.

In 1996, the shipyard was divested to the Malaysians at $4.2 million, making them majority shareholders even though some of the money is yet to be paid.

Barely four years after the Malaysians took over management of the yard, the workers started to have problems as they sensed that the yard was rather collapsing under the new owners. Industrial actions became part of activities of the yard.

At a stage, The Chronicle reported that rituals were performed in the yard as the Malaysians resorted to slaughtering ducks and goats, an action they admitted, and went on to say was to cleanse the yard of evil spirits.