Govt. secretly invited Dutch firm to raise MV Barima long before issuing tender – well-placed sources

What this source establishes

A second leaked document, this one about the procurement rather than the ship. Kaieteur News reports a thirteen-page proposal from the Dutch salvage firm KMS dated 28 July — five days before the state issued its public Request for Proposals — whose own executive summary says the firm "has been invited by the Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, through the Maritime Administration Department" to propose for the recovery. It quotes US$8 million and six to seven weeks, and states an objective of recovering the vessel in one piece so it is preserved for examination rather than segmented. The newspaper's inference — that the public tender may have followed a decision already taken — is recorded here as the newspaper's, and it says itself that it does not know whether other firms were invited. No government response appears. This archive holds neither the proposal nor any procurement record.

Key claims

• **[SINGLE SOURCE] A second leaked document, and it goes to the procurement rather than the ship.** Kaieteur News reports obtaining a **13-page proposal dated 28 July 2026** from the Dutch salvage firm **Koole Onshore and Koole Offshore (KMS)** — five days before the state issued its public Request for Proposals on 2 August.
• The proposal's own words, as reported: "KMS has been invited by the Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, through the Maritime Administration Department (\"MARAD\"), to submit a proposal for the righting and recovery of the passenger ferry MV BARIMA, which capsized and sank off the Essequibo coast on or about 18th July, 2026." And: "KMS is pleased to accept this invitation and offers a proven, safe and controlled solution."
• **Price and method.** US$8M; six to seven weeks — one week mobilisation, one week survey and diving, three to four weeks to lift and secure, one week demobilisation. Three phases: survey and inspection; controlled buoyancy-assisted righting (parbuckling); heavy-lift recovery, placement and transport. The proposal states the objective is to recover the vessel **in one piece so that it is preserved for examination, rather than segmented**, given the loss of life and the ongoing investigation.
• The paper reports that KMS "recently completed multiple casualty-removal contracts for the Government of Guyana in the Demerara River" and has established a base in Suriname.
• **The inference is the newspaper's and is recorded as such**: that the timing "raises questions as to whether the government has already selected a company" and launched a bidding process to satisfy the public. The paper also states plainly what it does not know: "It is not immediately clear whether other companies were selectively invited by the GoG to submit proposals to salvage the wreck prior to the official RFP."
• **[UNRESOLVED] No government response appears in the report**, and the article does not say the government was contacted.
• **This archive holds neither the proposal nor any procurement record.** It holds one newspaper's account of a document, sourced to "sources closely connected to the GoG". Nothing here establishes that any impropriety occurred.

This page is a research summary prepared for comment and review. It is not the article. Copyright in the original remains with Kaieteur News; the full text is held only in the private research corpus from which this archive was compiled. Follow the link above to read it at the source.