Merchant Marine Circular MMC-131 was revised by PANAMA MARITIME AUTHORITY on 1 August 2016. As a Full term ISSC for a Panama flagged ship is issued by the Administration (PMA), a short term ISSC is issued by the attending auditor upon the completion of initial ISPS audit so far.
According to this revised Circular, the Administration does not authorize the issuance of a short term ISSC after carried out the initial ISPS audit and they also request that the company operator should ensure to make all the necessary arrangements in order to apply for the Full term ISSC during the validity of the Interim ISSC (no more than six months).
Therefore, you are kindly requested to apply for an initial ISPS audit in plenty of time prior to the expiry date of Interim ISSC.

In addition to the above, you are kindly requested to keep the existing Interim ISSC onboard the ship until the original Full term ISSC issued by the Administration is provided onboard the ship.
Please kindly return the Interim ISSC to ClassNK the nearest branch / office after that.

For any questions about the above, please contact:

NIPPON KAIJI KYOKAI (ClassNK)
Safety Management Systems Department, Administration Center, Head Office
Address: 4-7 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8567, Japan
Tel.: +81-3-5226-2173
Fax: +81-3-5226-2174
E-mail: smd@classnk.or.jp