DEREK ACHONG
Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
State-owned Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited continues to refuse to disclose details of the individual fees paid to its attorneys for the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into an incident at its Pointe-a-Pierre facility that claimed the lives of four divers in 2022.
Late last year, former Petrotrin employee and Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) member Anthony Dopson made a disclosure request for information on Paria’s legal fees under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Dopson, through his lawyers led by Anand Ramlogan, SC, of Freedom Law Chambers, was forced to make a more specific follow-up request, after Paria was only willing to reveal that it had expended $8,951,753 on legal fees for the CoE.
In February, attorney Kendell Alexander, of Johnson, Camacho, and Singh responded on Paria’s behalf and indicated the company’s reason for refusing to disclose the exact fees that were paid to the five lawyers on its legal team led by Senior Counsel Gilbert Peterson.
Alexander relied on Section 30(1) of the FOIA, which exempts disclosure of personal information of any individual.
“In light of the present socio-economic climate in T&T, in which attorneys-at-law are being targeted by criminal elements, it is our client’s position that it would be an unreasonable disclosure of personal information to provide documents disclosing the names of each attorney-at-law on Paria’s Commission of Enquiry Team and the total fees paid to them,” Alexander said.
“Should this information be made public, as previous disclosures were, these attorneys-at-law may find themselves being targeted,” she added.
In a response, Dopson’s lawyer Aasha Ramlal threatened to file a lawsuit over the decision as she claimed that Paria’s concerns were speculative.
“Transparency in public expenditure has been achieved in similar contexts without compromising safety ... Privacy concerns can be mitigated through appropriate redactions without undermining the broader transparency objective,” Ramlal said.
On June 10, Alexander wrote to Ramlal disclosing a series of invoices that were submitted by its legal team for the CoE.
The invoices showed the previous payments disclosed by Paria and identified the five lawyers on the team—Peterson, Jason Mootoo, SC, Gretel Baird, Thane Pierre and Sebastian Peterson.
It also indicated that all payments should be made to Peterson, SC, who would in turn distribute the fees to the individual members of the team.
The invoices were, however, redacted to exclude the fees claimed by each of the attorneys.
Newly elected Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar repeatedly spoke out against public bodies relying on such exemptions even while serving as Opposition Leader previously.
She also aimed at legal professionals, who received State briefs and refused to allow their names to be disclosed under the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) administration.
“And I am coming for those ‘eat ah food’ lawyers soon. You will be amazed at the amount of money being spent, but you can’t give us the name ... you cannot use a defence of privacy,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar’s government is yet to announce its picks for Paria’s Board of Directors.
On February 25, 2022, Land and Marine Contracting Services Limited (LMCS) divers Christopher Boodram, Fyzal Kurban, Rishi Nagassar, Yusuf Henry, and Kazim Ali Jr, were sucked into the 30-inch-diameter pipeline they were performing maintenance work on at Paria’s facility.
Boodram managed to make his way to the entrance of the pipeline and was rescued.
Three of the divers’ bodies were recovered on February 28, while Nagassar’s was recovered the following day.
The then-Cabinet initially appointed a five-member team to investigate the incident but eventually appointed a CoE due to public criticism.
In its report, the commission, chaired by King’s Counsel Jerome Lynch, presented several dozen recommendations including charges under the OSH Act.
The commission also recommended that Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, consider prosecuting Paria for gross negligence manslaughter.
In July, last year, DPP Gaspard wrote to then-police commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher for the initiation of an investigation to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to prosecute any person or entity.
In early April, former prime minister Stuart Young announced the then-cabinet had decided to make a one-time ex-gratia payment of $1 million each to Boodram and his colleagues’ families without admitting liability.
He claimed that the delay in the settlement of the cases was due to insurers for LMCS and Paria disagreeing on which company was liable.
Speaking to reporters at the swearing-in ceremony for her Cabinet Persad-Bissessar and Attorney General John Jeremie said they would need to investigate whether the payments were made by the former government.