Ram says Ali's COI dodges key issues

What this source establishes

Christopher Ram, in an open letter to President Ali, argues the COI's Terms of Reference "concentrate almost exclusively on what happened during the July 18 voyage, while sidestepping the government's policy decisions leading up to the tragedy." Ram: "Your commission will inquire exhaustively into a voyage without asking why that voyage was made in that vessel at all." [NEW FACT TO THE ARCHIVE] Ram states "the newly acquired MV Kalliopi N arrived in Guyana in May and had been designated by Public Works Minister Juan Edghill for the Region One route. Yet the vessel remained tied up awaiting commissioning while.

Key claims

• Christopher Ram, in an open letter to President Ali, argues the COI's Terms of Reference "concentrate almost exclusively on what happened during the July 18 voyage, while sidestepping the government's policy decisions leading up to the tragedy."
• Ram: "Your commission will inquire exhaustively into a voyage without asking why that voyage was made in that vessel at all."
• [NEW FACT TO THE ARCHIVE] Ram states "the newly acquired MV Kalliopi N arrived in Guyana in May and had been designated by Public Works Minister Juan Edghill for the Region One route. Yet the vessel remained tied up awaiting commissioning while the 1939-built MV Barima continued transporting passengers." The archive holds a May 2026 Kaieteur report of a new Region One ferry arriving but has not previously connected it by name to the Barima's continued service.
• Ram: "None of this was misfortune. These were decisions… Nothing in your Terms of Reference permits the commission to examine them."
• STATUTORY BASIS — new and specific: Ram argues "the Commission should have been established under Part XVIII of the Shipping Act, which provides for a statutory marine investigation chaired by a sitting judge or magistrate with powers to compel evidence and suspend or revoke maritime certificates where negligence is found." He "questioned the legal basis under which the Commission was constituted." This is a third statutory proposal alongside the AFC's Commission of Inquiry Act Cap. 19:03 and Kiskadee's report of Section 2(1) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act.
• Ram calls for Minister Edghill and the MARAD Director General "to step aside while the inquiry proceeds and to testify before the Commission."
• Ram urges that all Barima documents — "maintenance records, surveys, manifests, inspection reports, and files concerning the Kalliopi N and Ma Lisha — are immediately secured to prevent alteration or destruction," warning they "could form key evidence in future civil lawsuits by grieving families."
• Ram: "A new ship sat at her moorings waiting for you. In its stead, an old one sailed without you and did not come back, with more than one hundred innocent and unsuspecting lives lost," and "This one must serve the dead and not you, your Administration or your party."
• Ram "questioned the fate of the MV Ma Lisha, the US$12.7 million ferry commissioned in 2023, asking why it never replaced the Barima on the North West route."

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