Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar said the matter of payments to the families of the divers who died in the Paria tragedy and the surviving diver may have to be settled through a judicial settlement, owing to a possible conflict of interest.
On February 25, 2022, diver Christopher Boodram together with co-workers Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Rishi Nagassar, were repairing a 30-inch pipeline at state-owned company Paria's Pointe-a-Pierre facility when they were sucked into it. Only Boodram survived. They were employed with Land and Marine and Construction Services (LMCS).
Boodram and the family of Nagassar are represented by former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, while the families of Kurban and Henry are represented by attorney Prakash Ramadhar.
[caption id="attachment_1154244" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Anand Ramlogan -[/caption]
On March 3, then Prime Minister Stuart Young announced that government would pay $1 million to Boodram, and $1 million each to the families of the deceased divers as ex-gratia payments. On April 2, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries wrote to the attorneys asking them where to send the payment.
Speaking to media at the government’s first post-Cabinet briefing at the Red House, Port of Spain on May 8, Persad-Bissessar said she had discussed the issue with the cabinet.
“I have already shared with my team, we want to be careful how we proceed with it because there may be an appearance of a conflict of interest, given that the lawyers for the surviving diver, and the others where the people actually died, so with respect to the surviving diver, I know the former Energy, Prime Minister, Stuart Young promised this $1 million or so, we are looking at it to see how best we can do it.
“There’s a bit of a complication for which I’ll need further advice from the lawyers for the state. The state represents the taxpayers of TT. So here it is the $1 million was promised, of course promises never materialised, never delivered, but conflict of interest possibly with the lawyers because they are seen to be UNC lawyers.”
She asked whether the payment was to be a one-off payment or if the cases brought by the families against the state would continue after the payment was made.
“The impression I’m getting is that after the $1 million, the cases will continue for further monies. I don’t want to run out there without having sufficient knowledge, legal and otherwise, as to how best to compensate, but compensate we will.”
Persad-Bissessar proposed solving the issues of conflict of interest and making a payment now and one in the future.
“Having the parties come together before a court, a judicial officer, rather than the two lawyers sitting down, he says he wants $5 million and this side saying $1 million. We may have to look at a judicial settlement of those matters, but we will help those families as much as we can.”
With a smile, she said there was another complication involving who had responsibility for the estate of the deceased divers.
“The fur
