Senior Reporters
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt; sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
The United National Congress (UNC) and the Movement for Social Justice are now calling for the entire board of executives at the Paria Fuel Trading Company to resign with immediate effect or be fired over its negligence in the diving tragedy at its facility in 2022.
Paria’s board of directors include Fayad Ali, Avie Chadee, Peter Clarke, Eustace Nancis, Reza Salim and chairman Newman George.
Following recommendations coming out of the Commission of Enquiry’s (CoE) report for the company to be charged with corporate manslaughter arising out of the tragedy, in which four divers dies, the Opposition said yesterday that the executives were the perpetrators and as a result, they should all be brought to justice for their unwillingness to do all they could to save the lives of the men.
During a media conference at the Office of the Opposition in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Barataria MP Saddam Hosein noted that even if the company is charged with the offence of corporate manslaughter, it does not mean anyone will go to jail.
He said the various sentences associated with corporate manslaughter are limited to a fine. This fine, he said, will ultimately be paid by the state.
Hosein said, “Four citizens of this country have died. The board of Paria must be fired and or resign forthwith. They must not receive another cent of taxpayers’ dollars after presiding over the catastrophic deaths of these four divers.
“In fact, none of these directors must sit on any other state enterprise. They have infected Paria with conduct that is considered criminal… The negligence of Paria converted a state-owned facility into a crime scene.”
He also called on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds to demand the resignation of all board members if they do not resign immediately.
Energy Minister Stuart Young laid the CoE report into the deaths of LMCS divers Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban and Yusuf Henry in Parliament on Friday. The men were sucked into a 30-inch underwater pipeline while conducting maintenance works at Berth No.6 in the Pointe-a-Pierre harbour in February 2022.
The CoE’s report, which recommended Paria be charged with corporate manslaughter and was highly critical of its treatment of the men’s families and lone survivor Christopher Boodram, has since been forwarded to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard.
MSJ leader David Abdulah also made a similar call at a virtual media conference yesterday, where he slammed the conduct of Paria executives after the fatal pipeline accident and their treatment of the deceased divers’ families and the survivor.
He charged, “All of them who were board members on February of 2022 must be fired. They have to take responsibility as the board of directors. They must be fired and they must never sit on a state board again.
“We are making that absolutely clear. Newman George and others who were directors of Paria on 25th of February 2022 when those four men died in the pipeline after suffering for hours...”
He said Boodram and the bereaved families received not “one red cent” while the Paria executives continue to receive their salaries.
“That is not only morally wrong, it is a travesty of humanity, as the commissioner of inquiry said, it is reprehensible, absolutely reprehensible that the families of the four men and the survivor got not a red cent in the last 23 months while board members were collecting thousands of dollars in fees. They should have taken money out of their own pocket to give to the families, quite apart from Paria giving the families money.”
If the law does not permit Collin Piper and others to be criminally charged, he said the least that should happen is that they be fired with no terminal benefits.
Abdulah also called on Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard to take immediate steps to act on the recommendation of the CoE report that Paria be held liable.
He said, “All the evidence is there. The work of the Commission of Inquiry, the verbatim evidence, the physical evidence in terms of documentation and other things, all are there in the public domain. The DPP does not have to launch another investigation into another investigation. The police don’t have to start another investigation. The evidence is there, charge Paria with corporate manslaughter.”
He said this will be an important marker for all companies going forward that they can be held liable for the deaths of employees or workers either employed by them or through contractors.
Abdulah also called on the Occupational Health and Safety Authority to move swiftly to bring charges against Paria and the other parties involved for breaches of the OSH Act, as the two-year limitation on laying charges is fast approaching.
He called on the Government, particularly Attorney General Reginald Armour and Labour Minister Stephen Mc Clashie to make the amendment recommended by the commissioners to the OSH Act, as well as the labour movement’s proposed amendments that were submitted over the years.
He also urged Government to amend the law in order to implement another of the CoE’s recommendations that “compulsory regulation be introduced with a regime of financial penalties and criminal sanctions for companies and individuals failing to adhere to them.”
Contacted yesterday however, DPP Gaspard said he could not “say much” on the matter, as he still has to peruse the documents.
“I can’t say much yet. I have to read the documents first. I intend to do so as soon as I can,” he said via a WhatsApp message.
