No COI can whitewash this colossal, tragic failure by the PPP/C Govt.

Aug 05, 2026 Letters

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Dear Editor,

In reference to your August 3 news article, “APNU walks out on Edghill at PAC meeting,” it is with a tinge of sadness that Juan Edghill, who holds a double minister title, has emerged as the target of public ire over the MV Barima tragedy because the vessel’s operations fell under his ministerial portfolio. But for anyone who understands how communist, socialist and corrupt governments work, accountability, responsibility and punitive actions are not for anyone to demand or administer. Edghill has a boss to whom he reports, and that’s where the buck starts and stops. It’s just the political reality in Guyana.

Nevertheless, from a public interest perspective, accountability for what happened on the 18^thJuly, 2026 MV Barima tragedy started after the PPP government returned to power in 2020 and probably recognised the need for a new vessel to replace the aging MV Barima, which plied the 149-mile, one-way Region One (Barima-Waini) route.

A US$12.7M line of credit offered by the Indian government was secured to build the new watercraft, the MV Ma Lisha, but after arriving in Guyana in April 2023, it could not be used because the Port Kaituma wharf being built since January 2023 to accommodate its mooring, was delayed due to shifting foundational soil, so government ended up pumping millions of dollars to keep the aging Barima plying the route.

In the interest of full disclosure, the MV Ma Lisha reportedly a historic 86-mile one-way maiden voyage from Port Georgetown to Kumaka in Region One on 10^th August, 2023, arriving after 18 hours, on 11^th August, 2023. After being docked at the KMC Bond in Kumaka, it reportedly departed on 15^th August, 2023 for Georgetown. MV Ma Lisha, for all intents and purposes, was rearing and ready to replace the aging MV Barima over three years ago, and this is where the element of accountability has its genesis.

At 87 years old, the Barima was like an octogenarian slave who was working in the hot sun since he was fifteen years old and being told by his slave masters that he could not stop working, so he was worked to death. Literally collapsing on the job and never to be revived.

There is a growing belief among some Guyanese that delay in completing construction of the Port Kaituma wharf may have been a major contributing factor because the US$6.7M (GY$1.4b) construction contract was awarded on 30^th December, 2022 to International Import and Supplies – owned by Parmeshwar Jagmohan – and construction started on 17^th January, 2023. The design of the wharf was done by a local company CEMCO.

The original construction completion date was set for 17^th April, 2024, but when structural design flaws emerged with the foundation, it prompted an independent review and plans for a redesign. The completion date was extended to 2026. Based on this changing of completion dates, the government, via the Ministry of Public Works, became ultimately responsible and must be held accountable for overworking the MV Barima. (See “US$12.7M MV Lisha still idle…embattled Edghill blames shifting soil, failed Port Kaituma wharf,” Kaieteur News,22^nd July, 2026).

The Commission of Inquiry, therefore, must take the foregoing into consideration in determining ultimate accountability, with specific focus on whether the wharf’s design consultants and the construction company met the Public Procurement Commission requirements in the area of past experience. Was soil testing ever part of the PPC’s requirement for the wharf contract to be awarded?

Just a further heads-up for the COI and a timely reminder for Guyanese that the GY$473M Bamia Secondary School and GY$865M Tepui Pump Station contracts remain prime examples of what can go wrong when inexperienced or unqualified persons are awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts. On 26^th March, 2010, a Florida-based Guyanese, Fip Motilall, was awarded a US$15.4M contract to build the Amalia Falls Hydro Access Road. The signing took place in the  Office of the President (Jagdeo was President) and among those present were Motiall, Winston Brassington and Ashni Singh.

Brassington falsely boasted Motilall built roads in Florida and Georgia, but Motilall’s spectacular failure to complete the project confirmed he was inexperienced, as President Donald Ramotar fired him in January 2012 for missing shifting deadlines. Still, he walked away with an extra US$12M when he sold the Amalia Falls Hydro license to New York-based Sithe Global. The license was given to him by the Jagdeo regime, but it is the pattern of skullduggery and incompetence I want the COI members and Guyanese to be cognizant of at all times.

The accountability for the ‘MV Barima tragedy buck’ stops at the government’s doorstep, not the three Guyanese remanded on murder charges. No Commission of Inquiry can whitewash this colossal tragic failure by the PPP government following the 21^st May, 2023 Madhia School conflagration. The buck stops with the PPP government.

Sincerely,

Emile Mervin

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• APNU, COI, Edghill, Emile Mervin, Letters, PAC meeting

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