The following shall be considered illegal practices of the maritime or para-maritime professions:
- Practising any of the professions without prior approval;
- Practising any of the professions with a leased, ceded or transferred approval;
- Practising without an insurance policy;
- Practising in spite of temporary suspension or withdrawal of approval.
The following shall be considered violations of the exclusive traffic rights of the state:
- Fictitious transhipment;
- Production of fake shipping documents, particularly fake manifests and fake bills of lading.
Without prejudice to the prerogatives of the legal department and of judicial police officers with general jurisdiction, any offences against the provisions of the law shall be established a report written by sworn merchant shipping employees officially designated and duly empowered by the maritime authority.
Any offences established shall entail administrative sanctions, without prejudice to the legal proceedings which may be brought against the managers of the companies in question before competent law courts following a complaint lodged by the maritime authority or the legal department.
Offences which are directly imputable to personnel shall be punished by competent Cameroonian law courts at the behest of the maritime authority or the legal department.
Without prejudice to the suspension or, if need be, complete withdrawal of the approval, any company considered guilty of illegal practice in the maritime or para-maritime profession shall be liable to a fine of 10,000,000 (ten million francs) CFA, without such fine being less than 20% of the FOB value of the goods illegally handled.
Legal representatives guilty of illegal practice shall be liable to imprisonment for from 3 (three) to 6 (six) years or a fine of from 400,000 (four hundred Thousand) to 4,000,000 (Four Million) CFA francs or to both such fine and imprisonment.
Any natural person practising any of the professions under the law and is in violation of section 7 shall be liable to imprisonment for from 3 (three) to 6 (six) years.
The court may, if need be, rule that the equipment of such a person be confiscated.
Any transporter guilty of violating the exclusive traffic rights of the state shall be punished with a fine equal to 20% of the FOB value of the cargo in question. This will be same punishment for violation by a shipping line.
Any employee charged with the sharing of freight, who resorts to fraudulent schemes in the issue of certificates of exemption shall be punished in accordance with the penal code.
Any employee of a shipping company who orders or executes the sale of exclusive state rights or requests the issue of fraudulent certificates of exemption in return for payment of any kind shall be punished in accordance with the Cameroon Penal Code.
Add comment