On Thursday, July 23, 2026, Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. (TIGI), the local affiliate of global anti-corruption network Transparency International, issued a bold demand calling on Guyana’s government to invite the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to lead a full independent investigation into the sinking of the cargo-passenger vessel MV Barima, a disaster that has been linked to an unofficial death toll of 102 lives. The organization explicitly rejected a government-controlled domestic inquiry, calling instead for a probe led by neutral, international maritime experts with no personal or institutional stake in the investigation’s outcome.
As recovery operations continue roughly five days after the vessel sank 10 miles off Guyana’s Essequibo Coast, Prime Minister Mark Phillips, a retired brigadier and former head of the Guyana Defence Force, confirmed the latest official casualty update in a Thursday evening briefing. Phillips made no mention of ongoing rescue efforts, focusing instead on body recovery and vessel repositioning work. According to the latest government count, 179 people were on board the 87-year-old Scottish-built vessel when it sank: 161 passengers and 18 crew members. Of those, 77 have been rescued and 72 bodies have been recovered, leaving 30 people still unaccounted for. The recovery count rose steadily over the past 48 hours, climbing to 70 on Wednesday after five additional bodies were found, with two more recovered on Thursday to push the total to 72.
In addition to demanding international leadership for the probe, TIGI has laid out several key requirements for the investigation process. The organization called for international civil society groups with established operations in Guyana to be granted full voting membership on any oversight commission, rather than being limited to observer status. It also demanded the immediate recusal of Public Works Minister Juan Edghill, Public Utilities and Aviation Minister Deodat Indar, and all senior leadership from Guyana’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) from any involvement in the probe.
TIGI’s call for international intervention stems from widespread public distrust of domestic inquiry processes, a grievance rooted in the unresolved aftermath of the 2023 Mahdia Secondary School dormitory fire that killed 20 children, most of them Indigenous girls. While a presidential commission of inquiry was convened after that tragedy, TIGI noted that three years later, grieving families are still fighting legal battles in Guyana’s High Court. Families allege the state pressured them to accept inadequate settlements without independent legal counsel, then moved to dismiss their remaining claims entirely. “Guyanese have no appetite for another domestic inquiry that collapses into a circus maximus,” said TIGI executive member Fred Collins, whose sentiment was echoed by the organization. TIGI joins two other major Guyanese civil society groups—Rescue Guyana and the Amerindian People’s Association (APA)—in calling for an independent international probe.
A central point of contention in the sinking disaster is the major discrepancy between the official passenger manifest and the actual number of people on board the vessel. Government initially reported 116 passengers and 17 crew, but after the identities of multiple rescued people failed to match manifest entries, officials revised the total count to 179 using security camera footage from the Kingston Goods Wharf departure point. TIGI emphasized that this discrepancy is not a minor detail, but core to the tragedy, noting that Minister Edghill himself has labeled the uncounted passengers “criminal.” The watchdog is calling for the probe to fully unpack how dozens of people were left off the manifest, who bears responsibility for the error, and what enforcement actions will follow.
As of Thursday, law enforcement officials confirmed that the vessel’s captain and three other crew members remain in police custody. Deputy Commissioner Wendell Blanhum, head of the Guyana Police Force’s Criminal Investigations Department, confirmed the detentions in comments to Demerara Waves Online News. Minister Edghill also previously disclosed that the captain and one crew member tested positive for marijuana after being rescued. TIGI argues that having government ministers who have already publicly prejudged key facts of the case oversee the investigation would violate basic principles of impartiality, making an independent international process the only path to credible accountability. The organization stressed that this is no longer just a domestic accountability issue: families of the victims deserve the truth and justice, TIGI says, and should not have to sue the state to obtain it, as the families of the Mahdia fire victims have been forced to do for years.