THE government will pay $1 million to the lone survivor and the families of the four men who died in the Paria tragedy on February 2022.
On February 25, 2022, Land and Marine and Construction Services (LMCS) divers – Kazim Ali Jnr, Rishi Nagassar, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Christopher Boodram – were repairing a 30-inch pipeline at Paria’s Pointe-a-Pierre facility when they were sucked into it.
Only Boodram managed to escape. LMCS was contracted by Paria to repair the pipeline.
Prime Minister Stuart Young, speaking at the post-Cabinet media briefing on April 3, said the delay in payments to the families was because the insurers for LMCS and Paria could not agree which company was liable.
He said he had been following up on the issue “at least once weekly” and was fed up of the delays.
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“I told cabinet I was no longer prepared to have these companies frustrate the families.”
“I wish it could have been done earlier and that the companies and the insurers took the legal route and settled it but that hasn’t been done.”
He said the payment will be a one-time ex-gratia payment and is not an admission of liability.
