New Diamond and X-press Pearl incidents: Underhand deals spoiling compensation claims

Seeking compensation for the environmental damage caused by the fire-stricken vessels has become almost unthinkable due to the procedure adopted in seeking compensation for the environmental damage. It is reported that the manner in which the Sri Lankan officers have prepared the relevant compensation estimates makes it difficult to receive compensation fully or partially. Obtaining the due compensation for the environmental damage as promised by the relevant vessel companies seems an unlikely prospect as of now. A considerable compensation could have been obtained for the impact caused on the beaches, sea species, plants, fishermen and the public because of the vessels New Diamond and X-press Pearl. Many parties accuse that those possibilities of obtaining compensation were missed because of several underhand deals.    

The Denmark company, which inspected the New Diamond vessel, is said to have unofficially informed Sri Lankan officers of the possibility to obtain compensation worth 535 million US$ for the damage caused by the vessel. The company has indicated that adopting a proper procedure to obtain compensation could have made the process a success. A spokesperson engaged in the process of obtaining compensation said the vessel company had had several secret discussions with a few Sri Lankan big shots and reduced the compensation amount to 18.1 million US$. “It is no secret that the vessel was allowed to be taken after paying a sum of 2.1 million US$ because of an agreement between the vessel company and some big shots. The company owes Sri Lanka 16 million US$. I suspect the compensation was reduced from 535 million US$ to 18 million US$ because of an underhand deal between those big shots and the vessel company,” the spokesperson added.

X-press Pearl has already sunk in the sea and the environmental damage caused hasn’t been calculated yet. The spokesperson further said that even if reports were made on the environmental damage there will be many issues coming in the way of obtaining compensation. He said that this is because of legal matters associated with it and the due compensation of 10 billion US$ might be reduced to 40-50 million US$.