RINA Has Repeatedly Expressed Its Sincere Condolences to the Victims, Survivors and Families

Genoa, 27th May 2014

RINA has repeatedly expressed its sincere condolences to the victims, survivors and families of the tragedy at Ali Enterprises and remains committed to fully co-operating with investigations into the cause of the disaster and to ensuring that its activities elsewhere remain fully compliant with the highest international standards.

We have no knowledge of the existence of any connection between the activities of RINA and the cause of the fire, which is currently unknown. The audit carried out more than two months before the event and did not reveal any shortcomings with regard to safety and fire prevention measures.

The information and evidence collected during the audit demonstrated the availability of emergency exits, evacuation plans and fire prevention and extinction measures and of the execution of internal training for safety and escape issues. If such conditions had been maintained at the time of the event, we believe the consequences would have been much less serious.

It is important to emphasize that SA8000 is a voluntary management system certification under which the accredited certification body is required, during the audit, to verify the existence of policy and procedures and that the system is in compliance with the applicable standard.

The certification body is not in a position to verify day-to-day implementation of the system, and its assessment is no substitute for the enforcement of local regulations on workplace safety, which remains the responsibility firstly of the company and secondly of the local competent authorities.

We would like to emphasize that safety management system certification cannot eliminate the consequences of intentional misconduct or negligence. Nor is it part of the audit team’s remit to assume the role of official competent authorities.

In conclusion, while expressing once again its heartfelt sympathy to all those affected by this tragic accident, RINA strongly maintains that its activity did not contribute to the fire through failure to take action on safety standards.