Sunday morning dawned with the horrible news that the ferry plying the North West District route had sunk below the waves. Works Minister Juan Edghill had proclaimed that there were 116 passengers and 17 crew members aboard.
He claimed that he had the manifest. Within hours he swallowed his words. The reality was that the authorities had no way of knowing how many passengers were on board. They soon found out that people had been on board without being on the manifest.
One survivor said that there were at least 200 people on board. But Edghill insisted that the vessel MV Barima was not overloaded. This was contrary to people who travelled repeatedly on the boat. Edghill told a press conference that the MV Barima was rated to carry 397 passengers. The seating capacity of the vessel was 150. Even by his count the presumed 179 passengers meant that the vessel was overloaded.
When people spoke about the vessel being defective, Edghill claimed that such a report never reached him. The wife of one of the victims, someone who often travelled on the vessel, spoke of severe overcrowding and a defective engine.
It was reported that for some time one of the engines was down. This reportedly delayed the departure of the vessel on two occasions. To make it operable the authorities had to install a generator, a very heavy generator. It is now believed that this generator was responsible for the vessel sinking beneath the waves. It cannot escape notice that corruption was the prime cause of the disaster.
Rampant corruption is the hallmark of the Guyana society. From top to bottom there is corruption. The head of state is at the centre of farm that people believe was set up with state resources. Bharrat Jagdeo has been accused of corrupt dealings, one of which places him at the centre of contracts with foreign entities. His land acquisition must not be forgotten.
Many government ministers have mansions that could not have been established on their salaries. Some have foreign assets. The children of some Ministers have established residences that belie their earnings. There was the report of the son of a Minister approaching a foreign contractor for a kickback. People have been awarded contracts merely because they are aligned to the ruling party. They produce shoddy work which costs even more to be remedied.
There is corruption in the Guyana Police Force. A private citizen actually gave to the Police Commissioner millions of dollars for the wedding of a senior rank. There has been corruption in the driver’s licence process. This explains the daily road fatalities. People who can barely keep a vehicle on the roads are operating huge trucks with no regard for other road users.
They crash into structures on the road, slam into other vehicles and the list of improper road use continues. There is corruption in the issue of firearm licences. It is said that people pay millions of dollars to get a licence. Two days ago, the police reported that they wanted a man who collected in excess of two million dollars for two licences. This was possible because the word is out there that firearm licences could be procured for a fee.
Every motorist knows that if he breaches the traffic laws, he can pay the rank on the road and avoid being charged. With all the news that anything could be obtained for a fee it should not be surprising that the government has come alive to the fact that there were people on the MV Barima who were not recorded.
If the boss can collect so can the ordinary man who actually contends that he is doing what everyone does. Money must also have exchanged hands for some of the cargo to be placed onboard. There are stories of people boarding speedboats to chase after the steamer that would have left them ashore. There is no ferry ticket here. If there is room for the purser to operate and people doubt there ever was, again there would be opportunity for corruption.
Maritime vessels have to be licensed. They need to be inspected. More likely, the inspecting officer could have been someone who got the job through someone connected. With his questionable qualifications one could imagine the quality of the certification. It is not known if the MV Barima was recently certified, but it was allowed to operate, such is the level of corruption in the country. The result is that people are dying but the government refuses to make the connection.
There has been the Mahdia dormitory fire that claimed twenty young lives. People in the hinterland mourned. They are mourning again a few short years later, this time because of a disaster of untold proportions.
