Different coordinates transmitted during the MV Barima emergency complicated the Coast Guard's efforts to locate the distressed ferry, the Commission of Inquiry heard on Tuesday.
Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard Commanding Officer David Shamsudeen said the changing distress locations made it difficult to determine where search-and-rescue resources should be deployed.

"The assets (vessel) was on the way to the first distress signal but it did not get to that area because the distress signal kept changing so they had to keep changing on the vessel itself teh direction," he said.
The inquiry also heard that the Coast Guard's standing operating procedures had not been updated during Shamsudeen's tenure.
Commissioner and retired Rear Admiral Hayden Pritchard, a maritime operations and security expert, noted that the document presented to the Commission had no visible revision date and asked when the procedures were last reviewed.
"During my tenure (of three years) there hasn't been any updates, so I can't speak to that," Shamsudeen told the Commission.

Shamsudeen said he needed permission from Defence Headquarters before providing certain documents to the Commission. He is the second witness to say so.

"I am subjected to Defence Headquarters on that position sir … I don't think I have the authority to furnish you with a report of this nature. So I will seek guidance from the defence headquarters," he said.

The Commission urged him to submit a copy of the post-search-and-rescue incident report, which it said is needed to establish the circumstances of the incident.