PORT OF COTONOU: UPDATE ON DEMARCHE CONCERNING ISPS CODE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COTONOU 000561

SIPDIS

DEPRTMENT FOR AF/W (BANKS) AND AF/RSA
LOME FOR DCM J.A. DIFFILY
PARIS FOR D'ELIA

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON EAID EINV ETRD EWWT PGOV KHLS PTER BN
SUBJECT: PORT OF COTONOU: UPDATE ON DEMARCHE CONCERNING ISPS CODE
COMPLIANCE
REF: COTONOU 389

COTONOU 00000561 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) SUMMARY. On July 24, 2007, United States Coast Guard
(USCG)Lieutenant Commander Robert Keith, Charge d'Affaires J.A.
Diffily, and Millennium Challenge Corporation Benin Acting Resident
Country Director Randall Wood met with officials from the Port of
Cotonou and the Beninese Merchant Marine to assess progress made
pursuant to the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) Code
demarche delivered to the Government of Benin on May 21 (Reftel).
That demarche outlined numerous deficiencies at the Port of Cotonou
and gave the GOB ninety days to meet the minimum requirements of the
ISPS Code and avoid inclusion on the Port Security Advisory List. A
tour of the port indicated that relatively little progress has been
made, and that a great deal of work needs to be done if the August
21 deadline specified in the demarche is to be met. END SUMMARY.


2. Christophe Aguessy, General Director of the Port of Cotonou, was
the principal GOB representative at the meeting. Representatives of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also present. The Minister of
Transportation and Public Works, whose ministry is responsible for
the port, sent his regrets. Mr. Aguessy opened the meeting by
thanking the USG for its involvement in efforts to improve the Port
of Cotonou and its willingness to provide feedback prior to the
expiration of the 90-day period specified in the demarche. He
distributed a timeline chart showing progress (or lack thereof) for
each activity intended to ensure compliance with the ISPS code.
According to the timeline, few of the activities will be completed
before August 21, and even the purchase of and installation of signs
noting demarcated zones, perhaps the simplest and least difficult of
the required tasks, showed an expected completion date of September
30, 2007. Several other activities, including the extension of the
south perimeter wall, the heightening of several perimeter walls,
and improved lighted, are scheduled for completion as late as
September or October. To cite a particularly worrisome example, the
heightening of the south perimeter wall has not yet begun, and even
the process of engaging a construction company to heighten the wall
is not scheduled to begin until the last week of July, and the
procurement process alone is scheduled to extend well past the
August 21 deadline.


3. Lieutenant Commander Keith thanked Mr. Aguessy for his
presentation and efforts made to date, but noted that the Port of
Cotonou is still far from being in compliance with ISPS code with
only four weeks remaining before the deadline. He further noted
that certification would be based on performance, not plans or good
intentions. He pointed out that many of the ISPS specifications do
not require lengthy procurement processes, such as posting guards at
perimeter areas where the wall has not yet been extended, and
initiating a publicity campaign to inform the public of security
requirements that will limit public access to port facilities. He
also questioned why so little progress had been made since September
2006, when the United States Coast Guard made its initial assessment
of the Port of Cotonou, and why the GOB had apparently waited until
the delivery of the formal demarche, and its 90-day deadline, before
beginning to implement improvements.


4. Lieutenant Commander Keith then reiterated the likely
consequences of the Port of Cotonou not meeting ISPS code by August

21. These would include the Port of Cotonou being placed on the
Port Security Advisory List, which would place additional
requirements on ships wishing to dock at Cotonou, as well as leading
to possible increased insurance costs and a potential decline in
ship traffic and revenue. He ended by expressing his hope that the
GOB and USG could work together to insure that ISPS requirements are
met by the deadline, and cited some positive accomplishments, such
as identification badges being provided for many key staff members,
additional gendarmes to help patrol the port facility, and the
division of the port into five different zones, which have been
demarcated on the ground using concrete monuments and painted
lines.


5. After the meeting, Port of Cotonou staff accompanied the USG
personnel on a long tour of the port, designed to showcase the
progress that had been made. The staff pointed out several new
concrete perimeter walls which had been built, such as one next to
the eastern jetty where the dry bulk carriers dock, and the USG
personnel observed a three-person work crew in place along the south
perimeter, mixing concrete to begin construction of a wall there.


6. (SBU) However, many of the same deficiencies noted in the U.S.
Coast Guard's previous inspection remain, and it was evident that

COTONOU 00000561 002.2 OF 002


several measures had been enacted purely for the benefit of the USG
visitors. For example, the three-person work crew had obviously
started working only hours before, and were still clearing
vegetation from the site with hand tools. While the port's
different zones were demarcated, no effort was being made to prevent
entry to any of the zones, and the concrete monuments were all but
invisible unless you knew where to look for them. Hundreds of
unidentifiable persons milled around the port, filling up water jugs
from the port's basin, and sleeping or eating under vehicles. No
visible efforts were being made to identify or control these
persons, and at one point security personnel did not challenge a
person who entered the port from the beach wearing a jacket over his
head. Few of the people within the port facilities had badges or
any clearly identifiable need to be in the port area. Drying
laundry around the port perimeter and cooking fires suggest that
many of these unauthorized persons have spent long periods of time
within the port facility. At least fifty trucks were parked in the
southwest area of the port facility, with their drivers and crews
playing cards in the shade, sleeping, or making tea on charcoal
fires. Several motorcycles loaded with jugs of gasoline or water,
presumably for sale within the port, entered without being
challenged.


7. (SBU) At the front gate, the USG team witnessed port security
staff turning away people who had no badges, but it was immediately
clear by the growing backlog of people, their confusion about why
they were being turned away, and the large volume of people exiting
the port facility, that this sudden enforcement of port policy had
been staged for the USG's benefit. An embassy staff member who was
traveling on the road next to the port at that time confirmed that
the suddenly strict access controls caused a major traffic jam of
trucks and other vehicles on the road.


8. (SBU) Ms. Rahanatou Anki Dosso, Director of the Merchant Marine,
offered many excuses for the current state of the port facilities
and repeatedly promised that the port would meet the August 21
deadline for ISPS compliance, but it soon became evident that she
had no clear idea of what ISPS compliance entailed. When questioned
about several problems at the port, she replied that the situation
either posed no problem, or that it was not the responsibility of
her office. For example, when questioned about a barbed wire fence
that had fallen into disrepair, she replied that she did not think
that this mattered in terms of ISPS compliance, and considered it
normal for fences to rust and deteriorate. Earlier, Mr. Aguessy had
stated that it was pointless to string barbed wire, because "people
will just cut it." He had no response when asked why his security
people could not prevent this from happening.


9. (SBU) COMMENT: The lack of progress toward ISPS compliance is
worrisome, especially considering the importance of the Port of
Cotonou to the economy of Benin. Also troubling is the fact that in
many cases correcting the noted deficiencies would not require large
capital investments and is often more a matter of willpower and
determination than money. During the July 24 meeting, and in a
subsequent follow-up meeting on July 25 with General Director
Aguessy and other GOB officials, Lieutenant Commander Keith and
Embassy officers stressed the seriousness of ISPS compliance and the
urgency with which the GOB must address the shortcomings outlined in
the demarche of May 21. They also emphasized that it is concrete
results which will count, not good intentions or honest efforts. END
COMMENT.
Lauterbach