Sharp to appear again at Kokopo inquiry

By LESLIE OMARO
and ELIZABETH VUVU
RABAUL Shipping owner Peter Sharp will be recalled before the Commission of Inquiry when day nine starts in Kokopo, East New Britain province, today.
Sharp made his first appearance in Port Moresby and handed over manifests showing 376 people including 14 crew members and two canteen boys were on board the mv Rabaul Queen when it sank off Finschhafen, Morobe province, on Feb 2.
But evidence provided at the inquiry indicated that more than 460 people were on board the vessel. Official figures say 237 people were rescued.
The Rabaul Queen is recommended to carry 295 passengers and a minimum of 10 crew members.
The captain and crew of the vessel who survived, are also expected to give evidence.
Lawyer assisting the commission, Mal Varitimos, will want to find out from them their work conditions and welfare, training, safety procedures on Sharp’s shipping vessels, the quantity and condition of safety equipment on board and their knowledge of the maintenance carried out on the ship.
He is also expected to ask them how Sharp ran the company.
They might also be asked to give an insight into how so many passengers perished when the boat sank.
They will be asked if they had brought to Sharp’s notice issues such as the ship’s persistent two-to-three-degree list to port that had existed for a year.
Survivors had told the inquiry that the boat foundered onto its port side after being hit by large waves and sank quickly.
Emmanuel Asigau, one of the lawyers assisting the commission told The National yesterday the inquiry was expected to call in the crew of the ship, staff and Sharp for the first three days of the hearing in Kokopo.
They would be followed by eight survivors from East New Britain.
“A lot of passengers’ names were not on the manifests provided by the shipping company and the inquiry will want to find out how the unnamed passengers got on board the vessel,” Asigau said.
The commission will move to Kimbe and then Bougainville after Kokopo.
The inquiry is expected to report to the prime minister at the end of July.