Ruling among other things that both the Minister of Natural Resources and the Local Content Secretariat breached the Local Content Act, acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC this afternoon directed that Ramps Logistics be issued its Certificate of Registration no later than 12 noon on Monday, November 14th.
Head of the Secretariat, Martin Pertab, was warned by the Judge that if he fails to comply with the order he could be held in contempt of court and imprisoned or fined.
The court made it clear that Ramps had satisfied all the requirements set out in the Act in its application for certification, but that the Secretariat had taken irrelevant factors into consideration, such as pending criminal charges against the company which in any event had been instituted way after the application for certification had been made.
Ramps, whose parent company is Trinidadian, has argued 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 moved to Court for judicial review and asked that it declare the decision of the Minister of Natural Resources and/or the Secretariat made four months ago—on June 8th—refusing to grant the certification to be unlawful.
Ramps also wanted the Court to declare “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 came 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.
