The government-owned electricity provider, Te Aponga Uira (TAU), is remaining silent on the internal investigation into a workplace incident that resulted in four staff members being electrocuted in mid-August this year.

Cook Islands News has repeatedly inquired about the status of the investigation and the condition of the affected staff members who were treated at the hospital, including one staff member who was admitted “in a stable condition overnight”.

The workplace accident during repairs on the cross-island cable caused an unexpected island-wide power outage on August 15. The sudden power outage occurred at 12.16pm and was fully restored island-wide by 1.57pm.

Te Aponga Uira did not respond to queries from Cook Islands News on August 15 about the power outage but released a statement the following day after the newspaper inquired about the electrocution incident.

In the statement, Te Aponga Uira confirmed the outage was result of a workplace accident but did not specify if electrocution was involved.

The electricity provider also said: “We are undertaking a full internal investigation to understand what took place and to ensure all steps are taken in future to avoid such an incident taking place.”

Since then, several attempts to obtain updates from TAU regarding the conditions of the impacted staff and the status of the investigations have been unsuccessful.

Melbourne-based Robert Tetauru, who specialises in safety and incident investigations in the workplace with a special interest in investigating workplace incidents in the Pacific, expressed great concern over the issue, stressing that it was worrying that this was happening in the Cook Islands.

“It feels like they are still determining whether the faults lie to who, there are responsibilities to be considered, especially dealing with electrical,” Tetauru stated in an email correspondence with Cook Islands News.

“Working with electrical is considered high risks, any mistakes can occur to a serious or permanent injury or death, there is no other way to describe it.”

Tetauru said that an incident like this should have some sort of formal investigation, adding being tight-lipped could be seen as negligence or an attempt to shift blame onto others.

As a safety and risk management investigations officer, Tetauru said the questions he would be asking TAU are: “How did the incident happen; When did the incident happen; What was the cause of the incident; What training was put in place; What supervision and discussions has been put in place; What safety implementations has been placed; How often the organisation conduct a workplace safety revisions or refresher trainings; and what has taken so long for a workplace incident to be investigated.”

“It is a shame how the organisation is not willing to discuss the issues, perhaps the Minister may have some comments or the injured workers. If this is not addressed with the full extent of the law, then it is unfortunately the bullies’ culture and negligence will be toxic,” he added.

“I know in Rarotonga there are some workplaces that are not compliant to accommodate the disability and those with special needs, Cook Islands Building code is not up to standard, and to make things worse it is the government body, they should be setting the example. “Perhaps look at the workplace law or if there are any safety laws that has been implemented that suits the workplace in the islands nothing of major like New Zealand and Australia. Cook Islands may have the minimum that only accommodates the business hubs however safety laws should be placed and regulated.”