APNU parliamentarian Ganesh Mahipaul yesterday called on the government to disclose the status of the process to salvage the MV Barima, including the number of companies shortlisted and when the operation is expected to begin.
His call came ten days after the August 14 deadline for expressions of interest, although President Irfaan Ali disclosed last week that the government had received submissions from an estimated ten or more companies and that shortlisting was underway.
In a statement yesterday, Mahipaul said the continued absence of detailed information about the process was unacceptable given the scale of the July 18 disaster and the number of families awaiting answers and closure.
“How many companies submitted Expressions of Interest? How many met the evaluation criteria? How many were shortlisted? Has a company been selected? When will the salvage operation begin?” he asked.
Mahipaul said each person lost in the tragedy was a mother, father, child, spouse, sibling or friend whose relatives were still grieving.
He also questioned whether the government had moved on from the disaster despite President Ali spending several days at Charity following the sinking, ministers attending funerals and Prime Minister Mark Phillips assuring the public that everything possible would be done.
“The dead deserve dignity. The families deserve closure. The country deserves to know. And the Government owes the people a full and timely update, not silence,” Mahipaul said.
The MV Barima sank off the Essequibo Coast while travelling from Georgetown to Port Kaituma. Seventy-six persons were rescued, 73 deaths have been confirmed and approximately 30 persons remain unaccounted for.
At a press conference last week, Ali said the submission period had closed and the responsible agency was shortlisting the interested companies. Those which met the stipulated criteria would subsequently be invited to submit prices for the salvage operation.
“I think it’s ten or more. Don’t hold me to that,” the President said when asked how many expressions of interest had been received.
He could not say how many of the submissions were made by local companies and did not identify the firms, disclose the evaluation criteria or provide a timetable for selecting a contractor and raising the wreck.
Phillips had earlier said that the expressions of interest would have to be evaluated before a contractor was selected and negotiations undertaken. “The process has started,” he said, while offering no date for the commencement of the salvage operation.
Mahipaul had previously questioned why the names of the companies which submitted bids and their respective offers had not been disclosed. However, the exercise advertised by the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) was an expression-of-interest process under which qualified companies would later be invited to submit financial proposals.
The government’s move to salvage the vessel followed public pressure and an earlier attempt to ascertain whether relatives of the missing wanted the wreck to remain on the seabed as a memorial.
A document titled “Declaration of Agreement – MV Barima as Memorial Site” was distributed to some relatives, asking them to indicate whether they agreed that the wreck should remain undisturbed as the final resting place of those still missing.
Phillips subsequently said families would decide whether the vessel should be raised or the site designated as a memorial. It remains unclear whether the relatives’ responses were collected or what became of that proposal.
Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed had also offered to fund the vessel’s recovery using an international salvage company at no cost to the state. The government did not accept the offer and MARAD subsequently advertised for expressions of interest.
On August 7, MARAD denied that any company had already been selected, following reports about a document in which Dutch maritime company KMS said it had been invited by the government, through MARAD, to submit a proposal before the public process was announced.
MARAD did not name KMS or say whether it or other companies had been approached before the public invitation. It nevertheless maintained that no contractor would be selected outside the public procurement process and pledged that the exercise would be transparent and fair.
The recovery of the wreck is expected to be important to the Commission of Inquiry and other investigations into the sinking, particularly in determining the vessel’s structural and mechanical condition.
Ali has said the commission’s substantive work is expected to begin in early September. No start date or full timetable has been announced.
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