The Roles and Responsibilities of SCASPA
Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 28, 2023 (ZIZ Newsroom): The role of the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA) is to facilitate economic trade locally, regionally, and internationally through the movement of goods, ships, people, and aircraft.
That’s according to Operations Officer at the R.L.B International Airport, Arthnel Jordan during his appearance on ZIZ radio’s programme “Policing with You” on Thursday (April 27, 2023).
Mr. Jordon outlined that SCASPA oversees various areas of the airport and seaport in collaboration with other agencies and stakeholders.
He stated, “The entire facility, which is the airport and the seaport, it belongs to SCASPA, but there are other agencies who are involved in ensuring that the day to the operations of our ports is paramount and adequate. So, we need the custom because the customs deal with border control. Checking off goods upon arrivals and departure. We need immigration because we have persons going back and forth, they need to do their checks before they allow person to enter our leave. We have the Fire Rescue and Services at the airport, and these are necessary within SCASPA’s facility to ensure that we can maintain those jets that you say coming here on a day-to-day basis, because without the fire department at the airport, we won’t be able to accept certain sizes of flights.”
Part of the responsibility of SCASPA is to safeguard against threats to the Federation’s ports and in an effort to fulfil that mandate, Jordan explained that SCASPA is required to comply with the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS) which is a framework through which ships and port facilities can co-operate to detect and deter acts which pose a threat to maritime security.
He explained how ISPS code came about and how it is being implemented.
“This came about based on 9/11, I mean, you might say, well, 9/11 had to do with planes, but you know, if you are going to be attacking maybe by air, which might be a little more difficult, then the next thing might be the sea and so the ISPS code was implemented or introduced to ensure that the attacks that we are getting by air do not spill over to the sea. So, then the ports now after signing onto to these conventions, had to develop port plans and appoint PFSOs, which is the Port Facility Security Officer. The ships had to get SSOs, which is the Ship Security Officer because all of these are requirement and these persons or entities are responsible for ensuring that all of the provisions of the ISPS code are implemented and met at all times”
Jordan also stated that the ports undergo regular inspections on a local and international level to ensure that they are operating at the highest standard.
“Well, inspection generally is to ensure compliance and we’re speaking about the ISPS code, to ensure compliance with the ISPS code and also the regulation 7.05. So, we have the entity here, which is the Maritime Department who is responsible for doing inspections and audits of the procedures that we implement here but that’s locally. We also have the PFSO who is responsible for ensuring that the officers performing duty are performing up to standard, and then maybe annually we’ll have a visit from the US Coast Guard, who will come to check us from an international standpoint to ensure that we are compliant with international standard and that we are implementing the ISPS code as we should.”
He added that the airport is also regularly inspected and audited by a number of organizations namely the Civil Aviation Division, SCASPA, the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Organization, the Transportation Security Administration based in the US, and the International Civil Aviation Organization.