'SAFE DELIVERY, quality assured.'
These are the watchwords, prominently displayed on its corporate website, of the Paria Fuel Trading Company.
'We are a state-owned company with access to strategic linkages and high-level market intelligence,' the company further boasts. 'Our significant infrastructure positions us to offer safe, responsible and efficient terminal operations.'
Today, the heartache being experienced by the relatives of the deceased divers involved in repairs last Friday in Pointe-a-Pierre is testimony to a completely different reality.
When they last saw their loved ones, little could they have foreseen that they might, days later, be left to sit under a shed as they awaited word from the company on the men's at first uncertain, then tragic fate. That reported indignity gave way to outright agony as details and allegations of unwarranted delays and unclear communications emerged.
Whatever the risks, complexities and nuances of the circumstances, it seems Paria's systems were, in varying respects, caught woefully underprepared. Those systems - including a health, safety, environment and quality management lead; a quality co-ordinator; an HSE co-ordinator; in addition to a technical maintenance manager and communications lead - must now be placed under scrutiny.
The contrition of Energy Minister Stuart Young on Monday over how things have unfolded, particularly as it relates to the treatment of family members, is a good start, but can never really recompense such losses.
Similarly, the appointment of an 'independent' committee to probe the matter is a step in the right direction, but not quite far enough.
How can this committee be described - as it has been by both Mr Young and the Prime Minister - as independent? It is, as far as we can tell, to be chaired by the permanent secretary of a government ministry.
Worse is the seemingly unilateral determination by the State that corporate actors with a long history of engagement with government should have a seat at the table.
Such corporate actors undoubtedly have expertise and resources, but at least one of them was involved in rescue efforts, generously loaning equipment as officials scrambled for help.
We cast no aspersions on any party. But any representations from these companies is a matter that should be weighed by a truly independent entity, not form a predetermined constituent part of the proceedings.
Dr Rowley should look to the precedent he recently set in commissioning a retired judge to probe disturbing allegations of corruption in the Police Service. That was a matter that clearly could not be entrusted to the Police Service itself.
We call on the Cabinet to go even further in this case and appoint a commission of enquiry into the deaths of these divers.
If ever there was a matter that warrants the use of the Commissions of Enquiry Act, it is this truly awful sequence of events.
The post After heartbreak, answers needed appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
