Edghill and others must go

Dear Editor,

On July 18, 2026, the MV Barima capsized off the Pomeroon River with some 100 Guyanese dying. This is our worst maritime disaster.

By Gazette Order dated October 21, 2025, Mr. Juan Anthony Edghill was assigned responsibility for “Shipping and Harbour Services” as Minister of Public Works. He is accountable to the people of Guyana through his appointment by President Irfaan Ali. As part of this role, he oversaw the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD). In the final scheme of things, all of this rolls up to the Office of the President and as one US President once said, “the buck stops at this desk.”

Through Cabinet Memorandum CP (2026) MOPW08/02, Mr. Edghill appointed:

• Ms. Rosalinda Rasul – Chairperson (Head of Diaspora Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
• Ms. Yurlander Hughes – former Personnel Manager, now Acting General Manager-T&HD.
• Ms. Annaser Hamilton – Materials Expeditor and Credit Union Board member.
• Ms. Louise Williams – Director of Ports at MARAD (the regulator).
• Mr. Indranauth Haralsingh – former Director of Tourism at the Ministry of Tourism.
• Mr. Dhanraj Singh – overseas-based Guyanese who has no experience in marine transport.
• Mr. Jonathan LaCruz – Civil Engineering Graduate (who graduated 2022).

Does any of these persons possess maritime crisis management certification or extensive operational risk expertise except maybe the representative from MARAD, Ms. Louise Williams. But Ms. Louise Williams is both a regulator (MARAD) and a Board member of the operator (T&HD). Is it ethical for the regulator to regulate themselves when the public’s lives are involved?

The Chairperson’s Record

Ms. Rosalinda Rasul was Country Manager of EZjet Air Services, when the United States Department of Transport suspending its licences in November 2012 (see Stabroek News article), leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. Simultaneously, the owner was engaged in criminal proceeding brought against him by the US Government. Ms. Rosalinda Rasul now Head of Diaspora Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Mr. Robert Persaud. She has very limited maritime experience. But by some stint of luck or connections, she chairs Guyana’s principal ferry operator, the T&HD.

The Acting General Manager’s Record

Ms. Hughes is a former Personnel Manager at T&HD. She now runs an operation that received in 2024 GUY$1.2 billion in operational subsidies and GUY$5.1 billion in capital contributions— a total of GUY$6.3 billion from the taxpayers by way of the National Budget. In return, the travelling public received a piece of metal floor to sleep on aboard the MV Barima.

The T&HD “raked in GUY$1.2 billion in revenues” in 2024, as was reported in the Guyana Times and the other newspapers. But the employment costs were GUY$1.4 billion and another GUY$1.3 billion was needed to pay for fuel. (See the Ministry of Finance website).

The company ran a GUY$6.3 billion loss operations in 2024, sustained entirely by taxpayers. It has ZERO independent capital revenue. Its survival depends on central government gifts, not its own performance.

The governance model perpetuated by Ms. Rosalinda Rasul and her General Manager aims to keep fares artificially low as a disguise for serving the poor. The truth: “nothing cheap is good.” Without radical restructuring, future emergencies are a foregone conclusion at the T&HD.

Demands for Action

1. Mr. Juan Anthony Edghill and Ms. Yurlander Hughes must vacate their positions until the Independent Commission of Inquiry complete its work, and based on those findings, then we shall know what the next steps for them are.
2. The entire Board, under Ms. Roalinda Rasul, must be sacked for abandonment of oversight, failure of duty of care, and ineffective corporate governance. They have failed Guyana.

It is good to see that an independent Commission of Inquiry must be led by a non-Guyanese maritime professional with competence in internal controls, port management, and occupational safety, has been appointed, we should give them the space to do their work.

May the souls of those lives lost rest in peace and may all the living who are suffering mental trauma right now find mental people. The mental destruction from this accident is just too much and we must change the way we operation on the waters and on the roadways.