(Kaieteur News) – Chartered Accountant and attorney Christopher Ram has questioned the government’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the MV Barima disaster, arguing that while President Irfaan Ali has since named a five-member panel, the probe as constituted fails to address the most critical question of all: why an 87-year-old ferry was still operating when a replacement vessel had already arrived in Guyana.

In an open letter addressed to President Ali before the commissioners were announced, Ram contended that the inquiry’s Terms of Reference concentrate almost exclusively on what happened on the night of July 18, while sidestepping the government’s policy decisions leading up to the tragedy.

“Your commission will inquire exhaustively into a voyage without asking why that voyage was made in that vessel at all,” Ram wrote.