MV Barima COI can refer criminal negligence, official misconduct for prosecution – ToRs shows

What this source establishes

The terms of reference have been published in the Extraordinary Gazette, closing the gap this site has recorded since 26 July. Six heads — seaworthiness, passenger and cargo operations, crew qualifications and conduct, search and rescue effectiveness, regulatory oversight by state entities, and human factors — with a two-month deadline for final written findings, public hearings, a power to issue interim safety reports, and explicit authority to refer evidence of criminal negligence, official misconduct or statutory breaches straight to prosecuting authorities. The inclusion of regulatory oversight answers part of Christopher Ram's objection that the inquiry stopped at the voyage. Still absent: a Statutory Instrument number, a budget, and any resolution of whether the terms reach loading authorisation and procurement as well as execution. And the deadline now sits awkwardly against the salvage timetable, since a lift is not expected to begin before late August.

Key claims

• **This closes the longest-standing gap on this site.** The Commission's terms of reference have been **published by the President in the Extraordinary Gazette**, reported 4 August. From 26 July until now this archive has recorded that no terms existed as a document rather than a paraphrase.
• **A reporting deadline exists: two months** for final written findings. Until now the formula recorded here was "upon completion of its work".
• **Six heads of inquiry**: vessel seaworthiness and safety; passenger and cargo operations; crew qualifications and conduct; search and rescue response effectiveness; regulatory oversight by state entities; and human factors in emergency decision-making.
• **The Commission may refer evidence directly to prosecutors.** It holds "explicit authority to refer any evidence of criminal negligence, official misconduct, or statutory breaches directly to legal and prosecuting authorities".
• **Regulatory oversight by state entities is expressly within scope** — which reaches MARAD and the Transport and Harbours Department, and answers in part Christopher Ram's objection of 28 July that the terms stopped at the voyage.
• Commissioners may issue **interim safety reports** if public safety risks emerge. Hearings are public, with discretionary closed sessions for sensitive evidence.
• The five commissioners are named: chair **Godfrey Phillip Smith**, retired judge and former Attorney General of Belize; **Capt. Hamada Fouda** (Jamaica); **Rear Admiral Hayden Pritchard** (Trinidad and Tobago); **Nyree Dawn Alfonso** (Trinidad and Tobago); and **Dr Andrzej Jasionowski** (Poland).
• [UNRESOLVED] **No Statutory Instrument or Gazette number is given in the report, and no budget figure appears.** Whether the terms reach loading *authorisation* and procurement, as distinct from execution, is not resolved by the heads as reported.
• **A timing problem is now visible on the face of the record.** The salvage expression-of-interest closes 14 August and the opposition puts the start of any lift at late August or September; a two-month reporting deadline from 4 August expires about 4 October. Whether the wreck can be examined within the Commission's own deadline is not addressed.

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