President Dr. Irfaan Ali on Thursday assured that the MV Barima will be salvaged, as the government moves through a public tender process to select a company to undertake the operation.
Dr. Ali, while engaging the Guyanese diaspora in New York recently, said the government has already invited bids for the salvage of the MV Barima, which sank off Guyana’s coast on July 17, claiming the lives of dozens of people and leaving others still unaccounted for.
He said technical officials are currently evaluating the bids submitted for the salvage operation.
“We then went out to a public tender, a public tender to get a company that can do the salvaging of the vessel,” Dr. Ali said.
The President said the process was conducted publicly and rejected suggestions that a contractor could be hand-picked by the government.
“We went through a public process. We had the bids that were received in that process,” he said.
“The technical people are evaluating those bids so that a company can be selected to do the salvaging.”
Dr. Ali’s comments come as the government faces continued questions over the MV Barima tragedy and the steps being taken to establish what happened to the vessel.
He said the government is not avoiding the salvage operation and that the process is actively underway.
“That is the reality. We are not hiding from salvaging. There is a process and that process is ongoing,” he said.
The President also sought to assure the public that the circumstances surrounding the tragedy are being investigated through the Commission of Inquiry (CoI), which has already commenced its work.
“We are not hiding from the investigation. The CoI is doing its work right now,” he said.
Dr. Ali said he would not interfere with the CoI’s work and pledged that the government would respond to the questions arising from the investigation.
“I will not interfere with the work of the CoI,” he said. “We are not going to shy away from any question. We are going to address every single question.”
The MV Barima tragedy occurred in July, resulting in multiple deaths and triggering a search-and-rescue operation, criminal proceedings and the establishment of CoI.
The government has previously said the salvage of the vessel is important to the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
The latest tender process is expected to result in the selection of a company to undertake that operation.
Three companies submitted bids to undertake the salvage operation—Guyana-based BK International Inc., Industrial Fabrication Inc. (InFab) and Netherlands-based KMS B.V.
The bids range from approximately $1.034 billion to $2.035 billion.
BK International submitted the lowest bid at $1.034 billion, followed by InFab at $1.895 billion and KMS B.V. at $2.035 billion.
