RAMPS Logistics Chairman, Shaun Rampersad, on Friday told the Stabroek Business that the firm currently providing support services to several foreign companies involved in various aspects of Guyana’s oil and gas industry, is determined that its current travails here, not least the recent move to the Courts against the company by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), not impact negatively on its image as a reputable service provider.
RAMPS – whose parent company is based in Trinidad – is currently facing charges brought against the company by the GRA contending that it had, over a period of time, made a number of false declarations with regard to duty-free imports which the company had handled.
When Stabroek Business spoke with Rampersad on Friday, shortly after he had left the Courts having been placed on $500,000 bail, he expressed concern that a matter that amounted to no more than what he considered a procedural one, had arrived at a juncture where it could threaten the image of the company.
November will mark nine years since RAMPS set up operations here in 2013 and Rampersad told the Stabroek Business that over that period the company had extended its service record in Guyana. RAMPS has executed assignments for a number of ‘big name’ service providers in the oil and gas sector including Esso, Halliburton, Seacor Marine, and Schlumberger, a circumstance which, Rampersaud told the Stabroek Business, made it all the more important that the company retain a reputation for efficiency and integrity. He said that the weight of RAMPS’ mission in Guyana rendered it all the more important that the company be afforded the credentials to allow it continue to provide the services that it does.
Meanwhile, as the court proceedings continue, RAMPS has been notified by the Local Content Secretariat that its application for a Local Content Certificate made some months ago was now on hold.
Speaking with this newspaper from the company’s New Market Street local headquarters, Rampersad on Friday said that RAMPS has no intention of backing away from defending itself against the charges facing the company which he said had nothing to do with its integrity. He said that he was particularly mindful that it be known that those charges brought against the company had nothing to do with substantive irregularities like matters to do with revenue evasion, but with procedural issues in the preparation of the ‘paperwork’ relating to the cargo which the company was handling.
November 11 was set by the Court as the date on which the case against RAMPS will next be heard. Contextually, concerns have arisen over whether or not the company will now have the time to continue to effectively pursue its application for the crucial Local Content Licence which it hopes to have before the end of 2022.
The proceedings against RAMPS in the local courts and the spinoff of the wider issues pertaining to the company that have arisen here, including last Friday’s hearing, were reported on in two of Trinidad and Tobago’s major newspapers, The Guardian and The Express. Both newspapers made reference to comments attributed to Rampersaud regarding what he described as “dark forces” in the Guyana private sector that were keen to see the back of the company.
He is also reported to have been quoted as commenting on the conviviality of the business environment in Guyana, a circumstance which, he said, foreign investors should take advantage of.
