Retired US Coast Guard commander Stephen Flynn warned that Caribbean countries, including the Dominican Republic, are currently hard pressed to come up with the resources to meet the enhanced security measures mandated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in December 2001, as reported by Caribbean region journalist, John Collins. The US Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 gave it force of law and as of 1 July 2004, the US has been enforcing the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS). Flynn advocates that more resources be made available to boost the security of the maritime transportation system.
Speaking at a two-day seminar titled “Adapting border controls to facilitate trade and security in the DR” and which was held in Santo Domingo last month, Flynn warned: “Since 9/11, Washington has provided only US$516 million towards the US$5.6 billion the Coast Guard estimates that US ports need to make them minimally secure.” He pointed out that in the FY2005 budget, the White House asked for just $50 million more. But matters are financially much worse for the implementation of the added security measures abroad.
“Given the severe constraints on the state and local budgets within the jurisdictions where America’s commercial seaports are located, it is difficult to see how these ports are in any position to bankroll the new security requirements that have been thrust upon them,” he said during the workshop. “The evidence to date is that much of the international maritime community is simply going through the motions,” he continued and indicated that on the day the ISPS code went into force, “only one-half of the world’s port facilities had gotten around to submitting their security plans ? and most were thrown together in the final weeks before the deadline.”
The workshop was coordinated by the Global Foundation for Democracy ad Development (funglode.org), the Santo Domingo think-tank founded by President Leonel Fernandez. The seminar was funded under a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to Professor Anthony Bryan of the University of Miami, who is also a senior associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.