Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is doubling down on calls for the Paria Board to be fired.

On Friday, the Lynch Report was laid in the Parliament, with the Commission of Enquiry stating, among other things, that “Paria’s negligence could be characterized as gross negligence and consequently criminal.”

The Paria Board consists of  Newman K. George (Chairman), Fayad Ali, Avie Chadee, Peter Clarke, Eustace Nancis, and Reza Salim.

Mrs Persad-Bissessar insists that genuine and meaningful action must be taken or else the Prime Minister would be guilty of the worst form of political hypocrisy and deceit.

She also called on the PM to publicly explain the steps Government intends to take to ensure that this multimillion-dollar expensive Commission of Enquiry would not go to waste, as she believes passing the report to the Director of Public Prosecutions is not enough.

Additionally, Mrs Persad-Bissessar wants the Government to allocate a sum similar to the cost of the CoE for distribution to the families of the divers.

Legal and other fees for the Enquiry reportedly amounted to just under $17m.

Fyzal Kurban, Rishi Nagassar, Yusuf Henry and Kazim Ali Jr, died after being sucked into a Paria pipeline while conducting maintenance works on February 25th 2022.

Another diver, Christopher Boodram, survived after managing to crawl out of the pipeline.