kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
While Kenson Group employees had direct involvement in the botched subsea maintenance that led to the deaths of four LMCS divers last February, its attorney Chase Pegus said they were all under the direction of Paria Fuel Trading Company.
In his submission to the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the Paria/LMCS tragedy yesterday, Pegus said several Paria managers testified that Kenson employees took instructions from them. Kenson provides workers to Paria, including offshore operator Kirk Scott, HSE technician Andrew Dopson and maintenance technician Houston Marjadsingh.
These employees were on or around Berth No 6 last February 25 when a Delta P incident caused divers Christopher Boodram, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry, Kazim Ali Jr and Rishi Nagassar to be sucked into Paria’s 30-inch Sealine No 36 while they were conducting subsea maintenance. Boodram survived while the others died awaiting rescue.
Pegus argued that Dopson was under direct supervision and took daily directions from Paria’s HSE coordinator Paul Yearwood. Marjadsingh took instructions from Paria’s maintenance planner Terrence Rampersadsingh, while Scott was only present as an offshore operator.
Pegus recalled that Rampersadsingh confirmed that even though Marjadsingh was a Kenson employee, he worked in Paria’s Maintenance Department. He said Paria did not challenge that evidence at the hearings.
“It follows that Kenson does not fall within your terms of reference (ToR), and there is no basis upon which your report would be required to deal with them. It is consistent, Mr Chairman, with the fact that the Commission of Enquiry has not identified Kenson as a subject of this enquiry under the Act. In this connection, I ask that you be aware that my client, the Kenson Group, has a reputational interest that you are obligated to protect. It is an interest that they take very seriously,” Pegus said.
He said there was no suggestion that Marjadsingh, Dopson and Scott were on their own when the incident occurred. Therefore, there was no question of individual blame of Dopson and Scott, whose roles were limited and who were not in supervisory positions.
He said although Scott was the person who witnessed a splash on the monitor providing a live feed of the divers inside the underwater hyperbaric chamber, it was not his duty to monitor. During questioning, Paria’s HSE lead Randolph Archibald confirmed this.
Pegus said another Kenson employee, Rolph Seales, had nothing to do with the work and was called after the incident to lend support. He said Kenson employees and Paria were indistinguishable regarding the ToR.
There were questions about Marjadsingh’s involvement as the applicant for the permit-to-work (PTW) for LMCS to carry out work on February 25, 2022.
Pegus said the focus on this was unwarranted as there was no evidence on how the PTW procedure should work when a contract for specific work existed. He said there was no evidence that the PTW was contractually binding.
Pegus said the CoE would have to recommend ways to improve the execution of works of this nature and would have to do that without evidence of how such work is contracted and performed.