By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News |
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — Prominent civil society activist Charlene Wilkinson has called for urgent transparency and deeper public consultation in the administration of state affairs, describing a joint civil society petition and press statement dispatched to President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali regarding the catastrophic sinking of the M.V. Barima as a vital step toward genuine accountability.
The petition addresses the maritime disaster in which more than 100 persons tragically lost their lives, pressing the executive to ensure that the ongoing Commission of Inquiry (COI) remains genuinely independent, completely transparent, and fully accessible to the Guyanese public.
Premature DPP Charges and the Compromising of COI Testimony
Speaking to members of the media on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, Wilkinson voiced alarm over the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) decision to institute criminal charges against three Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) staffers before the Commission of Inquiry could complete its fact-finding mandate:
- Silencing Key Technical Witnesses: Wilkinson argued that indicting the three maritime employees prematurely removes vital primary actors from testifying freely and openly before the commission.
- Risk of Self-Incrimination: Facing active criminal prosecution, the charged personnel are legally constrained and likely to invoke their right against self-incrimination, withholding crucial operational and technical details regarding the vessel’s seaworthiness, loading procedures, and command decisions.
- Lack of Comprehensive Investigation: She questioned how final prosecutorial conclusions were reached before the COI finished gathering evidence and taking depositions.
“We are forgetting that consultation with even the simplest of people could take us to a higher level of understanding,” Wilkinson told reporters. “You have not done any [comprehensive] investigation, and you are concluding something to take three men out of the picture of a free and open inquiry.”
Core Pillars of the Civil Society Petition
The joint civil society petition delivered to the Head of State outlines three primary contentions regarding the handling of the disaster:
- An Avoidable Disaster: The sinking was entirely preventable and resulted from systemic administrative, maintenance, and oversight failures across maritime regulatory bodies.
- Lack of Transparency: While the Commission of Inquiry announced that it has visited the site, requested operational logs, invited witnesses, and scheduled public hearings at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), key elements of the preliminary process are being conducted out of public view.
- National Ramifications: Sweeping structural failures under the rug without an unvarnished public inquiry will erode public trust and damage the country’s maritime safety record.
Drawing Parallels to the Mahdia Dormitory Fire
Wilkinson cited the official response to the 2023 Mahdia female secondary school dormitory fire as a cautionary benchmark for state accountability:
- Systemic Failures Ignored: In the Mahdia disaster, institutional negligence and infrastructure vulnerabilities were inadequately addressed, resulting in sole criminal liability being placed on a juvenile while systemic shortcomings escaped administrative consequences.
- Refusal to Accept Scapegoating: Activists insist that low-level maritime employees must not be used as scapegoats to shield senior administrators, regulatory agencies, or ministerial leadership from structural culpability.
Wilkinson concluded that the public will not accept an inquiry that obscures systemic failures, maintaining that the petition aims to ensure that the lives lost on the M.V. Barima lead to institutional reform and justice.
