Visit by ITOPF

The IOPC Funds were pleased to welcome a number of new staff members from ITOPF to the IOPC Funds’ offices on 18 January 2023.

Senior Claims Manager, Chiara DellaMea, together with Claims Manager, Ana Cuesta, and Claims Administrator, Chrystelle Collier, gave an overview of the international liability and compensation regime for tanker spills and explained the role of the IOPC Funds and the way in which it functions. This was followed by a Q&A session that prompted a lively discussion on the admissibility of claims and the definition of ship under the 1992 Civil Liability and Fund Conventions.

Those new staff who have joined the ITOPF technical team also received training on the IOPC Funds’ Claims Handling System (CHS) which is a tailor-made software, unique to the IOPC Funds.  The system was primarily developed to manage claims resulting from an incident from their submission to settlement, enabling the Secretariat to more easily track individual and overall claims progress and to manage the workload of any experts engaged in an incident.  It is used by all parties involved in assessing claims, including experts.

For over 40 years, the IOPC Funds have cooperated closely with ITOPF and have engaged the organisation to provide technical expertise and to assess the technical merits of claims for compensation in numerous incidents.  ITOPF is currently working with the Claims Department to assess claims from two major incidents – the Agia Zoni II in Greece and an incident in Israel.  The Secretariats also regularly collaborate on projects outside of incidents.

The IOPC Funds has always valued the strong relationship between the two organisations and was pleased to be able to support their new staff by sharing knowledge and information.