(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley last night announced that a three-person Commission of Inquiry will be launched into the circumstances that led to the death of four divers in the Paria tragedy.
The announcement follows the withdrawal of Eugene Tiah from the government appointed committee to probe the deaths.
Speaking during “Conversations with the Prime Minister” , Rowley said the five-member committee originally appointed to investigate the incident will be scrapped and in the coming days Commission of Enquiry members will be named.
“I have today instructed the Minister of Energy on behalf of the Cabinet to cancel the arrangement that was made public and therefore there will be no five-man committee of the experts that were made public because even before they’ve done the job the population has been so riled up into not accepting any work that they’ve done that it’s a waste of time now,” he said.
Referring to the committee, he said: “We have to cancel that and we’re going to have a Commission of Enquiry because apparently that is what will satisfy, a Commission of Enquiry, because some people believe let’s play court house with it, we’ll have an army of lawyers, we’ll spend hundreds of millions of dollars if we can, certainly millions of dollars and we will bring it into a Commission of Enquiry.
“The main reason according to our colleagues is that we’ll be able to call and summon and cross examine and all of these things and of course having done all of that nobody’s integrity will be at risk, nobody’s attempt to cover up …and we’ll certainly get it done that way.”
Rowley said the Cabinet will be approached to appoint the Commission of Enquiry.
The Prime Minister said the Government will utilise the same experts that energy corporations such as bp, Shell, EOG etc utilise if such a situation had occurred in their companies.
“Because that may satisfy some people in this country because nobody in Trinidad and Tobago who know anybody in the Government, if yuh grandmother cousin, nenen, neighbour, is involved is to cover up… but what is in fact happening, where there is hurt, there is pain, it has been converted to politics of the worst kind,” he said.
“I’m not against anybody going and praying with anybody, I’m not against anybody defending their party officer in a situation but to convert this hurt into the politics that it has been converted into because of opportunities seen by some people, we don’t see it so in this government, we see it that right thinking people must know that we have in this country the ability to examine a situation like this and if bringing in external experts will comfort those who believe that is only corruption and cover up will take place then we’ll do that because we want you to be comforted that whatever the finding is, those are the facts, those are the liabilities, these are the problems and these are the recommendations for solutions,” he said. he said in the next few days more will be shared about the Commission of Inquiry.
