The Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) yesterday said that no company has been selected to salvage the sunken MV Barima and that the contractor will be chosen through an ongoing public procurement process.
The statement, however, did not name Dutch maritime company KMS or address a reported claim in a company document that it had been invited directly by the government, through MARAD, to submit a proposal before the public invitation for expressions of interest was issued.
“MARAD wishes to clarify that no individual, company, or entity has been selected to undertake the salvaging of the MV Barima,” the department said in a statement dated August 7.
According to MARAD, an expression of interest inviting qualified entities to submit proposals was publicly advertised from August 2 in the state and private print media and on its social media platforms. The submission period closes on August 14.
“MARAD, therefore, strongly rejects any report or claim suggesting that an entity has already been selected or is being considered. These reports are false and misleading and are designed to create public mischief,” the statement said.
MARAD added that there would be no selection outside the public procurement process and pledged that the exercise would be transparent, fair and conducted in accordance with Guyana’s laws.
While the statement rejected claims that a contractor had been selected, it did not say whether KMS or any other company had been approached before the public process began. It also did not explain whether preliminary proposals had been requested or considered in preparing the subsequent expression of interest.
Kiskadee Watch has seen extracts from a document purportedly submitted by KMS which says the company had been invited by the Government of Guyana, through MARAD, to propose the righting and recovery of the ferry.
“KMS has been invited by the Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, through the Maritime Administration Department (‘MARAD’), to submit a proposal for the righting and recovery of the passenger ferry MV Barima,” the document’s executive summary stated.
The extracts reviewed by Kiskadee Watch did not establish that KMS had been awarded the contract.
Kaieteur News had reported that the proposal was dated July 28, several days before the public invitation was issued.
The extracts supplied to Kiskadee Watch did not include the cover page or date, but identified the document as revision REV001 of project 726049, titled “Righting & one-piece recovery of MV Barima, Essequibo, Guyana”.
According to the proposal, KMS offered to undertake the operation for a lump sum of US$8 million. This would cover mobilisation, inspection of the wreck and seabed, righting and lifting the vessel in one piece, placing it on a barge and transporting it to a location in Guyana for examination.
The proposed operation was expected to last between six and seven weeks, depending on the weather and the findings of an initial survey.
KMS proposed using a controlled, buoyancy-assisted process known as parbuckling to right the ferry. It would then employ a dynamically positioned heavy-lift vessel, with a minimum lifting capacity of 850 metric tonnes, to remove the ferry from the water in one piece.
The vessel would be placed on a barge, welded and secured to the deck, and taken to a location selected for further inspection.
According to the proposal, recovering the vessel intact was necessary because it remained government property and evidence in official and criminal investigations.
“Given the loss of life and the ongoing official and legal investigation, our objective is to recover the vessel in one piece so that it is preserved for examination, rather than segmented,” the company said.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall said this week that the salvage operation could cost between US$8 million and US$10 million and that a tender process was underway.
MARAD’s statement did not say whether KMS intends to participate in the current expression-of-interest process, whether other salvage companies had been invited to make preliminary submissions or whether the reported US$8 million proposal influenced the terms of the public invitation.
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