Kings Counsel and Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the Paria/LMCS diving tragedy, Jerome Lynch, has apologised for the delay in providing T&T with his final report and is aiming to have it all ready by July.
Lynch, in a virtual media conference this morning, said he did not anticipate the volume of evidence that he needed to go through, which exceeded what the public saw on its website and the evidential hearings.
Lynch initially promised to complete the report by Easter. However, on May 1, he issued a new order and press release detailing a new timeline.
“The reason is entirely my fault. The burden of writing this particular report falls largely on me in the first instance. It has been rather more burdensome than I had anticipated. The sheer volume of material that I had to work with in order to do justice to the very many contributions that we have had has taken me far longer than I had anticipated,” Lynch said.
Salmon Letters critiquing companies, institutions, and individuals involved in the incident will go out next week. The CoE will allow recipients to respond to the letters via oral submission.
While the CoE gave a deadline of August 31 to submit its report to President Christine Kangaloo, KC Lynch aims to deliver in July.
The Report will detail the CoE’s finding on the deaths of LMCS divers Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry, Kazim Ali Jnr and Rishi Nagassar and the injuries suffered by Christopher Boodram, after they were sucked into a 30-inch pipeline on February 25, 2022. The men were on subsea maintenance of Paria Fuel Trading Company’s Sealine No.36 at Berth No.6, in the Pointe-a-Pierre harbour.