Did govt’s mismanagement contribute to the MV Barima tragedy?

Jul 27, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

Last Sunday morning,19^th July, 2026, the nation awoke to the news that the MV Barima had capsized near Iron Punt, off the Pomeroon coast, while on a scheduled voyage from Georgetown to Port Kaituma. Search and recovery efforts have continued since then. As of Friday, 24^th July, authorities reported that 179 people were believed to have been aboard: 76 had been rescued, 73 bodies had been recovered, and up to 30 people remained unaccounted for. The final death toll could therefore exceed 100. The precise circumstances of Guyana’s worst maritime disaster in decades must be established through a thorough investigation. Opposition parties and civil-society organisations have called for ministerial resignations and an independent commission of inquiry. Such an inquiry should have the authority and resources needed to examine the actions of ministers, public servants, maritime officials, and others and to determine responsibility. I would also like to draw attention to circumstances that have so far received less public scrutiny.

Built in 1938, the MV Barima served the Georgetown–Port Kaituma route for decades, meeting the transport needs of Region One. Although the vessel underwent repairs and upgrades, its age had long made the need for a modern replacement evident. On 13^th January, 2021, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), an Indian state-owned shipyard, signed a US$12.73 million contract to build the ocean-going passenger-and-cargo ferry MV Ma Lisha for Guyana. The vessel was commissioned in Georgetown on 23^rd April, 2023. Yet the 87-year-old MV Barima remained on the Port Kaituma route because the new vessel could not berth there. Public Works Minister Juan Edghill has said that the Port Kaituma wharf intended to accommodate the MV Ma Lisha remains incomplete. Work reportedly began on 17^th January, 2023, under a G$1.4 billion contract awarded to International Import and Supplies. Edghill told the National Toshaos Council Conference this week that the new wharf developed structural problems after significant soil movement, requiring part of it to be rebuilt. The contractor has previously attributed the initial failure of the revetment to a design flaw outside its control. An independent inquiry must determine whether the soil conditions and design deficiencies were foreseeable, and who was responsible for identifying and addressing them.

Were adequate geotechnical investigations carried out before the wharf was designed and construction began? Were the government’s engineers, consultants, and contractor aware of the soil conditions at Port Kaituma? Were the design, supervision, and procurement arrangements adequate? These are among the questions an independent investigation should answer when examining why the wharf remains unfinished more than three years after work began.

The timeline also requires scrutiny. The government knew from January 2021, that a larger vessel was being built for the northwest service, yet the wharf contract was not awarded until December 2022, and construction began only a couple of months before the MV Ma Lisha arrived. The vessel has now been in Guyana for more than three years without making its intended voyage to Port Kaituma. The inquiry should determine whether better planning, procurement, engineering, and oversight could have brought the wharf into service sooner and allowed the MV Barima to be retired from this route. It should also examine whether those failures contributed, directly or indirectly, to the loss of life.

These are not conclusions that should be asserted before the evidence is gathered. They are urgent questions that the Ali administration must confront openly. The MV Barima tragedy should become a catalyst for transforming how the government plans, executes, and oversees major infrastructure projects. Guyanese citizens are entitled to competent administration, transparent accountability, and transport systems that protect human life. The lessons of the MV Barima sinking, the Mahdia dormitory fire, and the GDF helicopter crash must lead to concrete reforms; otherwise, the country risks repeating preventable failures.

Sincerely,

Andre Brandli

Zurich, Switzerland & Munich, Germany

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Andre Brandli, Iron Punt, Letters, mismanagement, MV Barima, Pomeroon

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