David Lee: UNC wants transparency at Paria

UNC deputy political leader David Lee has said the Opposition is demanding transparency at Paria Fuel Trading Company after the release of the a commission of enquiry's (CoE) report into the February 25, 2022 tragedy at Paria's Pointe-a-Pierre facility.

On that date, divers Christopher Boodram, Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Rishi Nagassar were repairing a 30-inch pipeline there when they were sucked into it. Only Boodram escaped.

Lee, who is also Pointe-a-Pierre MP, and other UNC members participated in a protest with the divers' families and members of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) outside the Pointe-a-Pierre facility on January 25.

He said the UNC is in solidarity with the families and OWTU with respect to compensation for the families for the tragedy.

Lee lamented that no compensation had been paid to the families since the tragedy happened.

At a news conference at his San Fernando office on January 29, attorney Prakash Ramadhar suggested ex-gratia payments of $5 million to each of the families would be fair.

Asked whether the UNC felt this was fair, Lee replied, "I don't know. The Opposition does not know what is a fair amount.

"What we are saying (is), some sort of compensation should be given to these families."

Lee said there could be negotiations between Paria, the families and their respective attorneys about what a fair financial compensation package could be.

He reiterated the UNC's call for Paria's board and top management to be fired.

He said there are unconfirmed reports that some Paria officials recently had their contracts with the company renewed, and said if this is true, "There must be transparency on what is going on inside of Paria."

Lee said more than political pressure needs to be applied to Paria if the company does not compensate the divers' families or action is not taken against it over the findings of the CoE report.

Section 34 of the report's executive summary said there is evidence to justify that Ali Snr and Paria operations manager Colin Piper should be prosecuted individually for several offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

This section added that LMCS and Paria could also be prosecuted under the act as employers.

Section 28 of the executive summary said, "here is no doubt that LMCS had a duty of care towards its workers. LMCS breached that duty of care."

The divers were working for Land and Marine Contracting Services Ltd (LMCS), which had a contract with Paria to do work on the pipeline. The company is owned by Kazim Ali Snr.

His son was one of the divers who died.

Section 29 added,"Paria also had a common law duty of care given the inherently dangerous nature of the work. That non-delegable duty of care arises in addition to LMCS' duty of care, Paria was in breach of their non-delegable duty of care."

A duty of care is a legal obligation imposed on an individual, requiring adherence to a standard of reasonable care to avoid careless acts that could foreseeably harm others, and lead to claim in negligence.

Section 33 said there are sufficient grounds for the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider charging Paria with corporate manslaughter.

Lee said, "I think this is a countrywide issue."

He was confident that between the efforts of the OWTU, UNC and the population, there will be transparency and accountability at Paria.

"Do not hide behind the veil of confidentiality and secrecy."

Lee claimed an example of this happened in the Senate last week, when there was a 15-15 tie between government, opposition and independent senators in the vote on a private motion about the Dragon gas deal with Venezuela.

Last December, Government secured a 30-year licence to explore, produce and export natural gas from the Dragon gas field to Trinidad and Tobago.

The nine independent senators voted with the six opposition senators on the motion, which called for transparency about the deal.

Senate President Nigel De Freitas cast his deciding ballot in favour of the government and the motion, filed by Opposition Senator Wade Mark, was defeated.

Lee said transparency not only pertained to the the Dragon deal but to other matters as well, such as the Paria tragedy.