Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat on Monday provided an update in relation to the Ramps Logistics controversy regarding its denial of a Local Content Certificate by the Local Content Secretariat.
Ramps Logistics, a Trinidadian company, initially alleged that it was wrongly denied a Local Content certificate. However, the company has since climbed down from their stance after a letter was sent to them by the Local Content Secretariat detailing all the documents the company has still not submitted to qualify for the certificate.
Minister Bharrat noted that as of Monday, the company still had not fulfilled those requirements.
“To date, I don’t think we would have received any further documentation from that company…,” he told reporters when pressed on the issue.
The Natural Resources Minister went on to reiterated that the Local Content Legislation outlines several areas that companies most comply with in order to receive the Local Content Certificate and considered a Local Company. If companies fail to comply with these outlined areas, he contended that they will face the necessary penalties.
“We have a Local Content Legislation and like all laws, you have to abide by the laws and if companies are not acting in keeping with the laws, then obviously there will consequences. As we would have seen, the no approval of a few companies because of the fact they did not reach the criteria set out in the legislation,” he posited.
“You know there are more than one criteria, one criteria speaks to 51 per cent ownership by Guyanese or a Guyanese company, there is another criteria that speaks 75 per cent managerial staff, there’s another criteria that speaks to 90 per cent of general staffing.”
“So, companies need to satisfy all criteria, not only one criteria too, so once the Secretariat is not satisfied that companies are not acting in keeping with the legislation, obviously they will take action,” the Minister declared.
Local Content Secretariat Director Martin Pertab had written the letter to Ramps Logistics, explaining that the information submitted by the company fails to meet the 75 per cent threshold and the other areas outlined in the legislation. This, he had reasoned, led to RAMPS’ application for the certificate being refused.
In the letter, Ramps Logistics was also warned about submitting misleading information.
Apart from the outlined information, Ramps Logistics is also yet to submit signed, filed and certified company resolutions or evidence of shares transfer to Deepak Lall, the Guyanese national that Ramps claimed they sold the 51 per cent shares to.
