NOC staff had been told of plans to start fire in 2012 – inquiry transcript

The transcript from the 2012 inquiry into the mass breakout and fires that rocked the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) that year suggests several staff members knew of plans to create disturbances but either kept it to themselves or took insufficient steps to prevent same from happening.

The transcript of the probe has been made available to Stabroek News in the wake of renewed turmoil at the NOC on the Essequibo Coast, a remedial facility for the young, where allegations of sexual abuse of girls is now under investigation. Up to now, the government has not released the report into the 2012 disturbances and this has added to concerns that problems from that period have persisted and fuelled the present allegations. The transcript that Stabroek News has seen has painted an unflattering picture of the qualifications of the staff of the NOC at the point of the unrest and other deficiencies.

According to the transcript, the NOC’s Centre Administrator at the time, Jagnarine Somwar, told commissioners that there were no warnings or indicators which would have suggested that a fire was imminent but then retracted his statements when Justice Winston Moore, who headed the inquiry, told him other interviewees