LAST February's tragic accident at Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd's Pointe-a-Pierre operations was not an act of God.

Paria Commission of Enquiry (CoE) chairman Jerome Lynch, KC, made his statement during a final virtual hearing held by the commission on Wednesday.

"Let's be clear. This was no act of God or mere unlucky accident."

On February 25, 2022, divers Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Christopher Boodram were doing maintenance work on a 30-inch underwater pipeline belonging to Paria when they were sucked into it. Only Boodram survived.

Lynch said, "Leave aside blame for a moment. It is imperative that we all ensure that this never happens again here or anywhere else."

On Thursday, the commission will submit its final report on the tragedy to President Christine Kangaloo.

While the final approximate cost of the CoE is $15.5 million, Lynch made it clear that the cost of the enquiry is insignificant compared to what its outcome should be.

"To be blunt. No more deaths. No more injuries. That can only be done if the parties, not just to this enquiry, but who are involved in this kind of enterprise, this kind of business, have a copy of the (final report) of the enquiry.

After mentioning the approximate cost of the CoE, Lynch hinted that some people would focus only on this.

He advised such people to put that figure into proper context "before there is too great an intake of breath."

Lynch said it is a fact there were several CoEs undertaken in TT over the last 15 years.

These include the Clico, Udecott, 1990 attempted coup and Las Alturas, which respectively racked up costs of $500, $46, $31 and $24 million when completed.

Lynch observed that the Solomon Hochoy Highway Extension project CoE is already costing $11 million, and it has not held any hearings to date.

For the 16 months that the Paria CoE did its work, Lynch said a $15.5 million cost was not unreasonable.

The Prime Minister announced the CoE on March 8. In a television interview in July, Dr Rowley did not comment on newspaper reports that the cost of the CoE at that time was $15 million. He said CoEs were expensive undertakings and used the Clico CoE as an example.

Rowley said it was because of this experience that, Government's initial idea was to use a technical team to investigate and report on the Paria accident.

"This would have been much cheaper and would have been reported long ago."

That committee was to be chaired by former Energy Chamber president Eugene Tiah.

The Opposition UNC accused Tiah of having ties to the PNM.

The chamber said it had held no discussions with the Energy Ministry before Tiah was nominated. Tiah withdrew from the committee after the UNC's objections.

Rowley said some people politicised the accident before any examination of the facts happened. He added these same people are now complaining about the CoE they had demanded.

The UNC has called for the CoE's final report to be laid in Parliament.

On the contents of the report, Lynch said, "We're not at

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