Mr PM, create ferry investigation team

In fact, there may even be a fifth investigation — by the Police Service and the Fraud Squad in particular. Of course, there will be duplication across all of these investigations but it cannot be helped if we are to go ahead with each of them.

It is justified, for example, for the Port Authority to conduct its own internal investigation.

It will need to know if there were systemic failures that facilitated any wrongdoing and where corrective interventions are needed.

The Integrity Commission’s probe may be statutory-based. If a formal request was made, then it has to do what it must. Similarly, the investigation by the joint select committee of Parliament may be legally enshrined once a request is made.

The Prime Minister and/or line minister are also entitled to launch an investigation into this very public matter.

Whether it should be one person or a team conducting this investigation is entirely up to him as well as who are the investigator(s).

However, it would be much wiser for the PM to have an investigation team rather than a one-person investigator.

One investigator, like anybody else, will have his/her own prejudices and can be accused of all kinds of biasness.

It will also be more publicly accepted if a three-member team at least, be used for these very public investigations.

More heads are better than one on these highly controversial matters and you don’t want to be accused later on of having a one-man show.

The PM should quickly add appropriate people and create a team.

It will be interesting for the public to know what the terms of reference for each of these investigations are so that we will know what can be expected.

Of course, the ultimate aim is to find out if any wrongdoings were committed, by whom, why and how, and what actions should be taken.

The public has a keen interest in this matter, especially as it involves public funds so we need to be kept in the loop. The findings should not be hidden away from us especially as the issue involves possibly hundreds of millions of dollars.

IAN RAMDHANIE via email