Ramps Logistics Guyana Inc., has withdrawn its claim for damages, but is pursuing costs against the Government which it had taken to court for refusing to grant it Certificate of Registration.
At a hearing yesterday afternoon before acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC, lawyer for the Trinidad headquartered company, Ron Motilall, 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.
When asked why costs were not a part of the settlement, Motilall told the Judge that while there had been discussions toward that end, they were not fruitful.
Solicitor General Nigel Hawke confirmed this, but said that government “is always open to trying to find ways of not litigating these matters.”
Against that background, he 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.
He said that most of the focus in previous discussions had been on damages and not costs.
Chief Justice George granted Hawke’s request to give the parties another chance at sorting out the costs issue, before any further litigation is pursued.
In the circumstances, she adjourned the matter to March 23rd for further reports.
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 Secre-tariat, 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, whose parent company is Trinidadian, 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 Guyana 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 in the determination of whether certification should be granted or not.
