The government was not preempting the Commission of Inquiry into the Mahdia dorm fire which claimed the lives of 20 children when it made an agreement to pay each of the victims’ families $5 million, but is just putting in place its paper trail for future auditing purposes, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said.
“The families are getting the assistance but if the auditors [come]… we have to have a paper trail too because it is public funds. That is what they are doing. The Attorney General’s office has to protect the fiduciary interest of the government,” Jagdeo yesterday said though he did not address the part of the agreement which stated that accepting the funds absolves government of any liability.
According the Jagdeo, some of the families had approached government for help.
“A number of families approached the government for help and the president made it clear… that they will assist. Pursuant to that, the government decided to help these families. That assistance now, which is a request from the families, is suddenly upturned that we are trying to [influence the CoI],” he said.
On Tuesday, and following media reports that all of the families signed agreements with the government to accept $5 million which would constitute the settlement of all claims possibly arising out of the May 21 tragedy, government had put out a statement through the Attorney General’s Chambers.
Government had not disclosed the construction of the agreements with the families and more importantly, that the families were accepting a settlement of possible claims.
The agreement went on to recognise that the signatories had completely read and understood the terms and voluntarily accepted it for the purpose of a compromise and the settling of all potential claims for liability and injury.
It further contended that independent legal advice on the agreement had been offered and/or received by the signatories.
Observers say with a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the fire still to be convened, the government was trespassing on territory that would traditionally come within the ambit of a CoI and the affected families may not have been adequately aware of what they were signing to.
However, Jagdeo defended the decision by saying that government had from the outset, committed to supporting the families. “Let’s say from the very beginning, the government led from the top on this issue. The President himself visited Mahdia several times. You contrast that with (former President David) Granger’s behaviour when we had tragedies of that nature. How many times Granger met with the families? Almost every minister was assigned families and they worked with them to take people though a very difficult period; to put in place the logistics; to assist the families personally from the beginning. That is the nature of our government. When a tragedy of that nature strikes, we don’t back away and hide. The government went to the forefront to assist.”
He said that the opposition wants to make the issue political but that they should do some introspection because when they were in government, they had done nothing for the families of the prisoners who perished when the Camp Street Prison was razed by fire.
Member of Parliament and Senior Counsel, Roysdale Forde, blistered the planned government payout, saying that not only did he expect the sum enshrined in the agreements signed with the families to be a “token presentation” of the compensatory package to come but it seemed like a preempting of the CoI.
“I expect the sum announced by the government to the families who suffered in the Mahdia dorm fire to be a token presentation of the compensatory package to come, for G$5 million (or US $25,000) for death, and G$3 million (or US$15, 000) for the lifetime of trauma and injuries the children and families must endure is no compensation,” Forde said about the agreement.
“I categorically condemn the preemptive posture of the government and hope it is not their intention to by-pass a credible and independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the disaster that took 20 young lives, and any acceptable monetary compensation that must also form part of the Terms of Reference,” he asserted.
Jagdeo rebutted this opinion yesterday saying that there was no attempt to preempt the CoI and that it will go ahead as planned. “We don’t know what will come out of the Commission of Inquiry and we have an open mind on that but we are going to assist the families now. Many of them need the funds now.”
“The CoI shall proceed,” he declared.
