(Trinidad Guardian) Former Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran is set to receive $5.47 million in compensation for being wrongfully dismissed by the Government in December 2015.
High Court Judge Devindra Rampersad upheld Rambarran’s case in June but only calculated the compensation owed to him in a decision delivered this morning.
The compensation represents the salary and benefits that Rambarran would have received had his contract not been terminated before it was due to end in July 2017.
Rambarran’s monthly base salary at the time of his termination was $173,435 and was set to slightly increase in the final two years of his contract.
In his judgment, Justice Rampersad ruled that the termination of the appointment on the advice of Finance Minister Colm Imbert was “seriously flawed”.
Justice Rampersad ruled that Rambarran’s constitutional rights to protection of the law and to a fair hearing in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice were breached and that the decision was illegal, null, and void.
Rambarran was appointed Central Bank Governor in July 2012, and his contract was terminated in December 2015.
The decision came shortly after Rambarran announced that T&T was in a recession and after he revealed the biggest foreign exchange users in the country.
In his constitutional claim, he contended that the government unlawfully revoked his appointment in breach of his constitutional right to due process and fairness.
In his judgment, Justice Rampersad ruled that if there were concerns that Rambarran’s alleged conduct was in breach of aspects of the Central Bank Act and Financial Institutions Act, both had provisions for criminal charges to be laid which Rambarran would have had to defend before a magistrate.
“Parliament intended that if there was a breach of either of the acts that there was a remedy to deal with that breach,” he said, as he noted that Imbert did not reveal the full reasons for his recommendation.
As part of his claim, Rambarran was seeking additional compensation for losing out on a position as a senior advisor to the G-24 Secretariat based in Washington DC.
While Justice Rampersad ruled that Imbert acted unfairly when he forwarded the press release over the revocation of Rambarran’s appointment to the official recruiting him, he noted that Rambarran was not entitled to additional compensation as he applied for the post during the period he will be compensated for based on the lawsuit.
Although Rambarran was seeking significant vindicatory damages as he claimed that he suffered psychological effects over what transpired, Justice Rampersad only ordered $175,000 as he noted that his (Rambarran) medical expert could not prove that the condition she treated in 2016 was directly caused by such.
