On Friday November 11th, acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC will hear arguments in the action filed by Ramps Logistics which says that the Local Content Secretariat (LCS) is refusing to grant it certification, even though it has satisfied all the necessary statutory requirements.
The hearing date was set yesterday morning at a case management conference at which timelines were also set for the exchange of submissions among the parties, which also has the Attorney General, the Minister of Natural Resources and the Directors of the LCS listed as Respondents.
The Chief Justice has ordered that all submissions be filed no later than October 31st, ahead of the November 11th hearing date.
Ramps is seeking Judicial Review against the LCS for certification, contending that it has satisfied the statutory requirements and cannot see why its application is still pending.
Ramps, whose parent company is Trinidadian, argues that it is 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.
It is against this background that it is asking the Court to declare as being unlawful, the decision of the Minister of Natural Resources and/or the Secretariat made four months ago—on June 8th—refusing to grant the certification.
Ramps also wants the Court to declare as “unreasonable, unlawful and arbitrary,” what it says is the Minister’s and/or the Director of the Secretariat’s refusal to reconsider that decision; while adding that they have misconstrued and misapplied Sections of the Act.
The move to the court comes close to two months after Ramps submitted additional documents to the Secretariat where its application for certification remains pending. 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.
Earlier this month Local Content Secretariat spokeswoman, Makaila Prince told this newspaper that the application for certification of the Company—whose parent company is in Trinidad and Tobago—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.
