Paria stitch-up

FEW SCANDALS betray the troubled soul of the nation more than the Paria tragedy. The media release this week from DPP Roger Gaspard, SC, adds to the morass.

Seven months after the Cabinet referred the enquiry report penned by Jerome Lynch, KC, to him, Mr Gaspard outlined his views on what criminal offences arise.

“I have identified the only possible non-regulatory criminal offence which could have been committed as being manslaughter by gross negligence,” he said. “Unlike the UK, there has been no statutory intervention in Trinidad and Tobago to create an offence known as corporate manslaughter.”

At the same time, the DPP apparently advised top cop Erla Harewood-Christopher to probe precisely that, saying there was need to ascertain if “there is sufficient evidence to charge any individual or corporate entity with manslaughter by gross negligence.”

This is a strange intervention for several reasons.

First, the country was told, since March 2022, that police were probing. The official who said this was Energy Minister Stuart Young.

Second, there was never any question of an attempt to apply UK statute provisions.

In fact, what the enquiry report of November 2023 stated was: “There is not a strong enough case to recommend the prosecution of any one individual. However, the law permits a corporation to be charged with manslaughter.”

It found “sufficient grounds to conclude Paria’s negligence could be characterised as gross negligence and consequently criminal” and recommended that “the DPP consider charging Paria with what is commonly known as corporate manslaughter.” The use of the phrase “commonly known as” makes plain excessive legalese was being avoided.

Yet, howsoever the offence is delineated, the truth is our history of law enforcement is conveniently abysmal as it relates to Big Fish. Piarco, Clico, Udecott – the list goes on. Few take comfort in the appointment of a lead officer by the top cop.

More than two years have already passed.

In that space of time, the Treasury has spent almost $120 billion, including $16 million for the Paria enquiry. None of that has gone to the families of the divers who lost their lives in February 2022.

In anguish, they have endured delays – including the botched appointment by the Cabinet of a committee, then the departure of a first enquiry chairman, then a late report – and suffered through meetings.

The Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd board, whose staff did not properly communicate as their loved ones likely lay dead in a pipeline – an offence on its own so grave as to merit removal – remains in office.

Little wonder many believe those with friends in high places face no consequences. Little wonder there is suspicion of a stitch-up.

We warn: The fruit of this will be the further erosion of standards in public life. The repercussions will outlast the Rowley administration.