Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, 22:27 by Writer
Commander of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Coast Guard David Shamsudeen on Tuesday told the MV Barima Commission of Inquiry that his marine wing handed over digital recordings of communications to defence headquarters, but when pressed on whether they could be provided to the commission, he said no recordings were done.
Dr. Andrzej Jasionowski, a Polish naval architect and forensic marine engineer, said the report, all digital tracks, voice recordings and logs all have to be securely archived.
He then went on to ask Mr Shamsudeen whether that was done.
Jasionowski: Have you done that?
Shamsudeen: Reports with recommendation and challenges were submitted to defense headquarters.
Jasionowski: Reports? And what about the digital tracks of your asset movements, voice recordings? Have you archived all those?
Shamsudeen: Those are submitted to defense headquarters.
Jasionowski: They are all available? Are these available for our review?
Shamsudeen: I can’t speak to that, sir.
After further enquiries by that commissioner, Mr Shamsudeen told the commission that he would seek advice on who could say whether those recordings could be reviewed and inform the investigators.
Immediately after, Chairman of the COI Justice Godfrey Smith pointedly asked whether those digital tracks were available. The Coast Guard Commander then recanted, saying no recording was done.
Smith: Commander, I just need to be clear in relation to Commissioner Jasionowski‘s last question. You’re stating as a positive fact to this commission that digital tracks, voice recordings, and logs were secured. They were secured and they were forwarded to defense headquarters. You’re stating that as a positive, verifiable fact?
Shamsudeen: With regards to any recordings, there are no recordings that I know…We are not mandated to do any recordings as well as digital tracks.
Prior to his direct response, the coast guard commander said after operations, all logs, recommendations and challenges formed part of reports “I was expected” to submit to defence headquarters as part of the standard operating procedures (SOPs). He restated that the logs were secured and sent to defence headquarters.
Mr Shamsudeen also could not commit to readily providing the coast guard’s post-search and rescue report titled “Report on the MV Barima incident” saying that he would first have to seek “guidance” from defence headquarters.
Prior to Mr Shamsudeen’s promise to explore the possibility of getting approval to hand over a copy of the report to the COI from the GDF’s top brass, COI Chairman Smith emphasised the importance of acquiring such a document to make recommendations to President Irfaan Ali who commissioned the probe into the July 18 incident that claimed the lives of more than 100 persons.
Mr Smith expressed dissatisfaction with the Coast Guard Commander’s position that the report focussed on search and rescue operations and not necessarily on how and why the incident occurred.
Mr Smith wanted to know whether Mr Shamsudeen thought whether the coast guard’s post-search and rescue report would help the commission discharge its mandate to look comprehensively into how and why the vessel sank.
“We have to prepare a report based on the mandate we’ve been given for this Presidential Commission of Inquiry. The report has to be comprehensive. It has to be thorough. It has to be able to withstand national, regional, and international scrutiny,” Justice Smith said.
In the end, Mr Shamsudeen said he could not provide the report unless he gets the green light from defence headquarters.
Smith: No, the hows and whys, our report will speak to that. What I’m seeking your cooperation on is assisting us in finding out the hows and whys by examining relevant foundational documents, one of which surely must be the posts or incident report. So are you prepared to undertake to assist us with a copy, as other witnesses in other areas before you have assisted us when they mention a document and we don’t have a copy of it? Are you prepared to assist the Commission in its mandate?
Shamsudeen: I am subjected to the defense headquarters on that position, sir… I don’t think that I have the authority to furnish you with a report of this nature. So I will seek the guidance from defense headquarters.
The Coast Guard Commander also declined to provide evidence about the fact that the Marine Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) falls under the Maritime Administration (MARAD) after COI commissioner Jamaican Rear Admiral (Ret’d) Hayden Pritchard told him that the virtual global standard was for such an entity to fall under the coast guard.
In response to questions from COI commissioner Nyree Alfonso, a maritime lawyer, about whether the GDF coast guard had a programme of regular preparatory search and rescue and training exercises involving foreign assets and fishing vessels for big, medium and small incidents, Mr Shamsudeen replied: “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
Replying to commissioner Jasionowski about when the joint SAR operation (as distinct from an exercise) was conducted, he said “I cannot recall. I know that that hasn’t happened in a while. There was no need for it.”
Turning his attention to the SOPs, Rear Admiral Pritchard observed that there was no commencement date. Mr Shamsudeen said when he took command of the coast guard three years ago, he inherited them from previous commanders and they were not updated.
“During my tenure, there hasn’t been any updates, so I can’t speak to that,” he said.
