Foreign companies cannot pluck random Guyanese from the sky to front as partners - Minister Bharrat

Foreign companies cannot pluck random Guyanese from the sky to front as partners – Minister Bharrat

Nov 18, 2022 News

– vows to plug loopholes for abuse

By Kiana Wilburg

Kaieteur News – Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat has vowed that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Administration will do everything in its power to strengthen the Local Content Legislation with the aim of preventing foreign companies from taking advantage of certain loopholes.

Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat

Bharrat said the Administration will not stand idly by and see companies pluck random people from the sky, claim they have Guyanese parentage, and front with them as partners so as to usurp multibillion dollar benefits carved out for Guyanese in the law.

Speaking to stakeholders at a Local Content Forum hosted by the Private Sector Commission (PSC) yesterday, Bharrat said the government is keen on getting this done following the results of a recent court case with Ramps Logistics Guyana Inc.

The company with Trinidadian parentage had taken the Local Content Secretariat to court for refusing to grant it a Local Content Certificate.

A preliminary version of that ruling which was handed down last week Friday by Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire CCH, SC said it was illegal for the agency to deny the company the certificate.

The chief judicial officer said the Secretariat had asked Ramps to supply several pieces of financial documentation, which were not part of the legislation. This was requested by the Secretariat, in an effort to prove that Ramps’ 51 percent sale of the company to Guyanese, Deepak Lall, was legitimate.

In June last, it was revealed by Ramps that Lall, who was not born in Guyana, only got his Guyanese passport for the first time in 2021.

The Chief Justice had said in her ruling that the law is very clear on the requirements to get a Local Content Certificate. The company must show that 51 percent of its shares are owned by a Guyanese, ensure that at least 75 percent of executive and senior staff is Guyanese and have at least 90 percent of non-managerial staff is local. Since Ramps satisfied all three, she ordered that the certificate be issued.

Minister Bharrat said the government is not happy with this decision. He said, “The Local Content Law was designed to ensure Guyanese benefit from the sector and there are only 40 categories of work. There are over 100 services the sector needs and we are saying leave this 40 (which includes logistics work) for Guyanese. We are not being unfair.”

Minister Bharrat said the government has zero tolerance for companies that try to rent citizens. He said, “We are serious about people trying to acquire a Guyanese passport due to some family lineage… It is only fair that we here, who stayed and worked, toiled, scarified to develop the country that we benefit first. Not people who born elsewhere and today they suddenly come to reclaim their citizenship just for benefits.”

The Minister added, “People cannot show up or fall out of the sky or appear after 17 or 18 years or whatever the case and say oh ‘I am Guyanese to the bone.’ It can’t work suh. It is unfair. It is hurtful too that you can just show up, never pay a dollar to develop this country, don’t know how a road or school was built or how people were punishing in Berbice for water like I did but you just show up just like that and want benefits.”

Bharrat said it was the government’s expectation that companies would have acted in good faith and not try to resurrect people so that they can merely apply for a Guyanese passport and claim a Guyanese identity.

Though the certificate was issued to Ramps, Bharrat said the government has paid keen attention to what played out and will ensure systems are in place to deal with these issues as they arise.

He said high-level meetings on the way forward will occur with President Irfaan Ali and Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo soon.

“Government is not happy with this. This Local Content Legislation was not designed for companies to take advantage of us,” the minister concluded.

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