Shameful and shameless

ON JUNE 6, the High Court ruled the previous administration’s shameful refusal to release a ministerial report into the 2023 death of Allanlane Ramkissoon, who died after an explosion at the NiQuan plant, unlawful.

Point by point, Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams decimated the Ministry of Energy’s flimsy and fallacious reasons for not granting a freedom of information request filed by Mr Ramkissoon’s grieving widow, Sarah, implicitly rebuking the failure of the Dr Keith Rowley cabinet to uphold the public interest and also serving as a warning to state and quasi-state endeavours when it comes to the treatment of worksite fatalities.

“Poor form,” decried the judge in relation to the ministry’s decision to invoke, at one stage, Christmas holidays as it dragged its feet in responding to the family’s sombre request. She was equally withering when it came to all the excuses given to justify non-disclosure.

Technocrats had cited confidentiality and constitutional rights. They said they could not act because of adverse findings against people who were not given a chance to reply. They said OSHA was conducting a probe. They said the report included commercial information; its release could harm NiQuan.

Unconvincing and unsupported was how the judge found all these arguments to be.

In response, Minister of Energy Dr Roodal Moonilal described the Rowley administration’s handling of the matter as a “shocking and shameful abuse.” No more cover-ups, he promised.

Instead of all this provoking contrition, however, former energy minister Stuart Young has been unrepentant.

In a June 8 statement on social media – which made no mention of the deceased worker or the grieving widow, who was forced to bring a court case – the Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West MP defended the ministry, saying it was “at all times guided and advised by independent state attorneys and by senior counsel.”

It was enough for him that NiQuan, the entity whose conduct was in question, declined to approve the release of the ministry’s own report. He knocked Dr Moonilal, accusing him of “misplaced” comments.

But it is a judge of the High Court, not the UNC Oropouche East MP, who has made the remarks that should concern Mr Young and the PNM.

Politicians of all ilk, though, should never again be allowed to hide under the fig leaf of legal advice in relation to job-site deaths.

Nor should the private incorporation of entities benefiting from the treasury or state ever be deployed to frustrate accountability when human lives are lost.

Especially after the Paria tragedy, the time has come to amend the law to force mandatory disclosure of worksite fatality reports across the board.

It may be too late for Mr Ramkissoon’s family to get full justice. But it is not too late for legislators to act.