-Chairman raps Director of Maritime Safety for `obfuscation’
The MV Barima returned to service without clearance from the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) after a November 2025 inspection found that only one of its two engines was working and that the ferry had no radar, emergency generator or serviceable life rafts, the Commission of Inquiry into its sinking heard yesterday.
MARAD’s Director of Maritime Safety, Captain Courtney McDonald, testified that the agency never verified whether the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD), which owned the ferry, had corrected the deficiencies. He said he did not direct his staff to follow up and that MARAD had no tracking system to alert it when the vessel left the wharf.
“We wouldn’t know that you departed, there is no tracking if you move from the wharf to go somewhere,” McDonald told the commission under questioning from Commission Counsel Arudranauth Gossai.
Gossai pressed McDonald on whether the ferry could safely sail with the deficiencies recorded in the November report. McDonald acknowledged that several were “high priority” and said T&HD was required to address them before the vessel sailed. He maintained that the report itself contained no instruction barring the ferry from operating.
“The report did not indicate that the vessel was not supposed to go on a voyage,” McDonald said.
The November inspection was conducted by acting Marine Superintendent Christopher Bailey, who told the commission on Tuesday that the ferry was in “fair condition.” His report recorded that one of the vessel’s two generators was under maintenance and that several key documents were missing. The report gave no explicit pass or fail determination.
McDonald said he forwarded the report to T&HD without adding his own assessment because he considered the findings clear enough for the operator to act on. He said he did not send it to MARAD’s director general because Bailey had recorded that the vessel was undergoing maintenance at the Transport and Harbours Goods Wharf and was out of operation at the time. McDonald said he would have escalated the report had the inspector recorded that the ferry was operating.
Asked how he interpreted the absence of a determination, McDonald said an inspector who considered a vessel unsatisfactory would record that conclusion.
“Not putting that basically means that he is satisfied with what he is seeing,” he told the commission.
Commissioner Hayden Pritchard also drew McDonald’s attention to a February 2025 inspection that flagged similar deficiencies. Pritchard pointed out that the MV Barima made several voyages after that inspection, even though McDonald considered many of the deficiencies high priority.
After more than two hours of questioning, Commission Chairman Godfrey Smith reprimanded McDonald as he pressed him to explain what the February findings meant for the ferry’s ability to sail.
“You are prevaricating. You are obfuscating our work. You are being asked as Director of Maritime Safety to assist us in understanding what this February 2025 report means. How should we interpret it? Does it mean no sail? Does it mean low priority? What does it mean?” Smith asked.
McDonald said MARAD’s procedure was to wait for T&HD to complete the work and request a follow-up inspection. He testified that MARAD set no deadline for the repairs and that T&HD never called the agency back to verify them.
Pritchard questioned why the regulator depended on the vessel’s owner to initiate that check, saying T&HD should not be left to oversee its own corrective work.
The hearing continues today.
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