Obey Minister Order, Don’t Engage Divers without Medical Certification –Chief Inspector tells IOCs, Divers

The Chief Inspector of Diving, Nigeria, Mr. Julius Ugwala has called on International Oil Companies (IOCs) and diving companies to ensure full compliance to the directive of the Hon. Minister of State for Labour, Mr Festus Kemayo (SAN) mandating divers to produce their fit- to -work medical certificates before being engaged in any operations in-country.

Referencing the instruction of the Minister of State for Labour, mandating the Diving Governing Board to ensure that all divers provide their medical certification before being engaged by the IOCs, the Chief Inspector of Diving who also frowned at the cases of forgery urged the IOCs to develop in-house mechanisms for verification of certificates.

“The IOCs and diving companies should join diving experts to ensure compliance by divers by putting in place polices and control measures to prevent divers from tendering forged medical certificates for their diving operations.

“If an employee decides to fit into a job for which he has been medically certified as unfit, it is detrimental to the person’s well-being and constitutes a risk to his employers.

“Diving is a critical and high-risk operation. The mental and bodily well-being of individuals should be ascertained prior to those operations.

“I commend the Honourable Minister of State and the Permanent Secretary for their commitment to the well being of divers and the entrenchment of safety standards. Rigorous medical check of diving personnel cannot be ignored.

The Chief Inspector of Diving also urged hyperbaric doctors to strive for the same goal as the Oil and Gas sector by ensuring thorough medical screening and developing a channel for the verification of certificates presented to IOCs to avoid a compromise of the system.