Status of industry inspections as at February 2009

Following are the paragraphs related to industry inspections contained in the opening statement by the OPCW Director-General to the Executive Council at its 55th session.

Allow me to turn now to Article VI inspections. Sixty-seven inspections have been completed since the Fifty-Fourth Session of the Council, which include: two at Schedule 1 facilities; 10 at Schedule 2 plant sites, of which two were with sampling and analysis; eight at Schedule 3 plant sites; and 47 at other chemical production facilities.

I also wish to refer to the two papers on enhancing information in OCPF declarations prepared and submitted by the Secretariat to the Council last year. These papers were submitted just before the Fifty-Third Session of the Council, and were also presented to States Parties on 8 July. This topic is now on the agenda for this Council session, and I look forward to Member States’ further consideration of these papers—both in the Council, and of course in the Industry Cluster consultations, which began last November 14 and are continuing this year.

I would also like to mention the Technical Secretariat’s intention to hold a seminar, for which we will seek voluntary funding, on OCPF-related matters in the margins of the meeting of National Authorities planned for November of this year. We will keep you informed on this matter as planning is proceeding apace, and we hope to have a final format for that very shortly.

A report on the performance of the modified methodology for selecting other chemical production facilities for inspection was issued to States Parties prior to this Council session (EC-55/DG.8, dated 2 February 2009). The results of applying this modified methodology in 2008 were consistent with what was projected when I announced the modified selection methodology in 2007 (S/641/2007, dated 25 May 2007 and Corr.1, dated 4 June 2007).

Consequently, the main findings are consistent with what I also have reported at the Fifty-Fourth Session of the Council, namely that that use of the modified methodology has resulted in:

a) the selection of more plant sites from the States Parties which had declared a relatively large number of inspectable OCPF plant sites; and

b) the selection of more relevant OCPF plant sites, through the use of the A14 scores.

I also wish to recall that the modified methodology remains an interim measure pending agreement among States Parties on a definitive site-selection methodology. I urge States Parties to address this last remaining issue concerning site selection in earnest.

The Verification Information System and electronic declarations

The Verification Information System and electronic declarations is also an important matter I would like to refer to now. Computerisation of verification-related activities is progressing steadily. During 2008, the software modules for inspection planning of OCPF and Schedule 3 facilities became operational. During 2009, the system will be expanded to handle data on the verification of chemical weapons and their destruction.

There has been a great interest among States Parties in the new software tool, the electronic declaration software for National Authorities (EDNA) that facilitates the submission of declarations in electronic format. Seventy-six representatives from 54 States Parties were trained on its use during the Thirteenth Session of the Conference of the State Parties and the National Authority Days, also in December 2008, were used for the same purpose. The Secretariat is committed to the further development of this tool, which will significantly reduce the burden of submitting and processing declarations, both for States Parties and within the Secretariat.

The Secretariat has also improved its delivery of information to States Parties by providing in electronic form the declarations data requested by States Parties in order to be assured of the continued compliance with the Convention by other States Parties (that is, redacted declarations). This information was provided to the 17 States Parties that requested it.

Timely submission of declarations

In response to decision EC-51/DEC.1 (dated 27 November 2007), which refers to the timely submission by States Parties of declarations under Article VI of the Convention, a status report on the timely submission of declarations for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2008 has been made available to the Council (EC-55/DG.12, dated 5 February 2009). I wish to draw your attention to the marked improvement in this area during the latter part of 2008. In that period, more than 80% of the States Parties that did so submitted their annual declarations of anticipated activities for 2009 on time, and all those that were unable to meet the deadline indicated the difficulties that were encountered in meeting the deadline.

By comparison, in the first half of 2008, less than half (or 46%) of the States Parties submitted their annual declarations of past activities for 2007 on time and less than a quarter (or 24%) of those that failed to meet the deadline indicated the difficulties that they encountered.

In addition, since November 2007, after decision EC-51/DEC.1 was adopted, six States Parties (one in 2007, and five in 2008) have submitted their initial declarations or completed their initial declarations under Article VI. Fifteen States Parties have yet to submit or complete their initial declarations under Article VI and I encourage them to do so at the earliest opportunity. The Secretariat, for its part, stands ready to provide advice and assistance whenever needed.