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(1) Where a seafarer belonging to a Ghanaian ship is left at a place other than a proper return port, the master of the ship shall, subject to this section and as soon as practicable, enter in the official log book a statement of the effects left on board by the seafarer and an account of wages due to the seafarer at the time when the seafarer was left behind.

(2) On the termination of the voyage during which the seafarer was left behind, the master shall furnish to the Registrar of seafarers or the proper officer, within forty-eight hours after the arrival of the ship at the port at which the voyage terminates, a delivery account and a retention account.

(3) The master shall if required by the Registrar of seafarers, furnish the vouchers that are reasonably required to verify the delivery and retention accounts.

(4) The master of a ship shall deliver to the Registrar of seafarers, if the Registrar will receive them, the effects of a seafarer as shown in a delivery account and subject to the reimbursement allowed under subsection (5), the amount due on account of wages as shown in that account and the Registrar of seafarers or proper officer shall give to the master a receipt for the effects or amount delivered.

(5) The master of a ship is entitled to retain out of the wages the sums shown in a retention account that appear to the Registrar of seafarers to be owing or payable to the master of the ship and for that purpose the Registrar of seafarers or proper officer shall allow those sums to be retained by the master, out of the amount due on account of wages shown in the delivery account and where that amount is not sufficient, for the remainder to be raised and paid to the master out of the effects.

(6) Before allowing a sum to be retained or to be raised and paid, the Registrar of seafarers may require that evidence be provided by statutory declaration or otherwise that the sums are owing or payable to the master of the ship.

(7) The Registrar of seafarers shall deliver the remainder of the wages and effects to the person at the time and in the manner as may be prescribed, and shall render the accounts in respect of them as the Director-General may direct.

(8) The sums remitted under this section or arising from the sale of effects under this section, and not disposed of in accordance with this section, shall be retained by the Republic.

(9) The master of a ship who, without reasonable cause, contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and without prejudice to any other liability to which the ship might be subject is, on summary conviction, liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty penalty units or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding twelve months or to both the fine and the imprisonment.

(10) In this section

(a) "delivery account" means an account of the effects and wages of a seafarer left behind or owing at the time a seafarer leaves or is discharged from the seafarer's ship;

(b) "retention account" means an account of the expenses caused to the master or owner of a ship by the absence of a seafarer from the ship due to the seafarer's desertion, neglect to join the ship, or conduct constituting an offence under section 168 or 169, including, in the case of a seafarer who is not entitled to be repatriated at the expense of the master or owner of the ship the provision made for the return of the seafarer to a proper return port;

  (c) "effects" includes the proceeds of the sale of the personal property of a seafarer.