Ramps Logistics has moved to the High Court seeking judicial review against the Local Content Secretariat over its application for certification, sources told Stabroek News.
The move comes some 41 days after the company submitted additional documents to the secretariat where its application for a Local Content Certificate is pending.
Stabroek News gathered that the court action was filed on Friday in the High Court by Satram and Satram.
Yesterday, Local Content Secretariat spokeswoman, Makaila Prince said she was unaware of any legal action being taken against the secretariat.
Ramps Logistics has been pushing for its certification in order to bid for a renewal of a contract with businesses supporting oil and gas activities.
Last week, Prince told this newspaper that the company’s application remains in queue in the review process.
Ramps Logistics, which started operating in Guyana in 2013 won the contract to provide freight forwarding and supply chain management services to ExxonMobil Guyana in 2018. It had responded to a public tender for the project.
Under the existing contract the company facilitates logistics for vessels between Guyana and Trinidad, customs brokerage, clearing of equipment and cargo coming through local ports among other functions.
With the contract up for renewal by November of this year, they stand a chance of not being in a position to bid since they were initially denied their local content certification.
Other companies, which provide services similar to Ramps have already received their local content certification.
The Local Content Secretariat outlines documentation to be submitted by a Guyanese national or Guyanese company registering with the Secretariat in support of their application. According to the agency’s mandate, it “aims to ensure the prioritisation of Guyanese nationals and Guyanese companies in the procurement of goods and services for the enhancement of the value chain of the petroleum sector and to enable local capacity development.”
Ramps amended its application after the LCS denied it its local content certification. Director of the Local Content Secretariat (LCS) Martin Pertab, in his letter explaining the rationale behind the decision, had identified a number of areas in which the company failed to satisfy the requirements for certification.
In the June 27 correspondence to the company, in response to an application made on April 12, Pertab stated, “Upon a review of that application, the information submitted were found to be insufficient for a proper compliance evaluation to be done by the Secretariat in accordance with the requirements of the Act.”
Pertab’s letter, seen by this newspaper, identified a number of grounds on which Ramps’ application was denied, among which were questionable documents which did not clearly state the amendments to incorporation and the failure to have their executive board of directors be 75 per cent Guyanese.
In a brief statement after the rejection of the application, Ramps Logistics said that it was looking forward to working together with the LCS to promptly resolve this situation. However, when the company submitted its amendments, its attorneys argued that the rationale provided by the LCS was not in keeping with the powers conferred on it. Writing directly to Pertab, the law firm contended that Ramps Logistics has at all times satisfied the requirements of the Act for registration as a local company.
The company in its new documents provided to the secretariat, shared a copy of the resignation of Rudy Rampersad, the Notice of Change of Directors, the Notice of Change of Secretary, and the relevant Resolution of the Board of Directors.
“In the spirit of an early resolution of the issues which were raised in your letter, our client has complied with all your demands even though, in our view, your requests are outside of the parameters of the powers vested in the Secretariat under the Act… We anticipate that the registration would now be granted without delay,” the letter concluded.
