Ramps, gov’t still in talks on court costs
With discussions still ongoing between lawyers for the Government and Ramps Logistics, there has still not been any resolution regarding costs in the local content case won by the company.
When the matter came up before acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC yesterday morning, both sides requested time to facilitate further discussions.
In the circumstances, the Chief Justice adjourned the matter to April 25th for further reports.
Ramps Logistics Guyana Inc., has since withdrawn its claim for damages, but is pursuing costs against the Government which it had taken to court for refusing to grant it a Certificate of Registration for local content.
At a hearing last month, lawyer for the Trinidad-headquartered company, Ron Motilall, had said that the issue of costs is still to be resolved and was firm in pointing out that the company will be pursuing that claim.
Solicitor General Nigel Hawke had said that government “is always open to trying to find ways of not litigating these matters” and against that background, begged the Court for an opportunity where both sides could again look at the issue with what he described as a “greater measure of compromise” in a bid to arrive at an amicable resolution.
Background
Finding that Ramps Logistics had satisfied every requirement of the Local Content Act, the Chief Justice in a ruling delivered on November 11th last, ordered Head of the Local Content Secretariat, Martin Pertab, to ensure that the company was issued its Certificate of Registration.
In keeping with the Order of the Court, Government later issued the Certificate to Ramps. It had hinted at an appeal, but none was ever filed.
Ramps had moved to the Court for judicial review seeking a number of declarations, among them that the decision of the Minister of Natural Resources and/or the Secretariat on June 8th 2022 refusing to grant the certification was unlawful.
Ramps which considers itself a Guyanese company since it is registered here and has been in existence since 2013, argued that it was entitled to be issued a certificate of registration and to be entered into the Local Content Register in accordance with Section 6 of the Local Content Act.
In her ruling, the Chief Justice found that Ramps Logistics had satisfied every requirement of the Local Content Act and made the order for the company to be granted certification.
The Chief Justice had said that both the Minister and the Secretariat had breached the Act. In fact she made it clear that “the
Minister had, and has no authority under the Local Content Act, to grant or refuse certification.”
Further, she said that the Secretariat misconstrued the Act and had taken irrelevant factors into consideration, such as pending criminal charges against the company which she said had “absolutely” no bearing on the determination of whether certification should be granted or not.