A draft report of the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) findings into the tragic Paria diving incident will be delivered to the President come April.
Chairman of the Commission, King’s Counsel Jerome Lynch, made the revelation yesterday, before the start of the sitting.
He said the commission will be viewing the habitat or hyperbaric chamber being used by the five LMCS divers on March 14 and 15.
Four LMCS divers dived after being sucked into a 30-inch Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited pipeline while doing underwater maintenance work on February 25th, 2022. A fifth diver managed to escape.
Lynch, commenting on his delivery timeline for the commission’s draft report, said: “I make clear now that it is our intention that there should be a draft report in the early part of April and there will be a final report after the supply of any summon letters at the earliest opportunity, if there are to be any, by the end of April. I hope to able to provide the President with a copy of our report by the end of April.”
However, he said it will be up to the Government when the report is made public.
“I will do everything in my power to encourage them to do so pronto, this is a matter which has attracted considerable public attention and involves the future of this industry and people’s lives. If there is any value in having this public enquiry, it is in making available our report as soon as humanly possible,” Lynch said.
Lynch also announced that the testimony from the divers’ families will be moved from Tuesday to Monday.
He said relatives of Kazim Ali Junior and Rishi Nagassar are currently scheduled to give statements before the Commission.
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