Finance Minister Colm Imbert says the government will appeal the High Court ruling, awarding the former governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) TT$5.47 million (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) in compensation for being wrongfully dismissed in December 2015.
Imbert, responding to an editorial in Wednesday’s edition of the Trinidad Express newspaper in which the paper comments on the government’s “mounting legal bills”, said “we respectfully disagree with the decisions of the first instance judges.
“However, we are constrained in what can be said in relation to these matters as they are sub judice. In our judicial system, there is recourse to the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council to settle such legal disputes.”
Imbert noted that in many cases, “our Court of Appeal overturns decisions made in the High Court, and decisions in the High Court only stand if not appealed.
“We, therefore, await the outcome of our appeals. It should also be noted that the Ministry of Finance has since September 2015 prevailed and been successful in the majority of matters heard and determined in our local courts, a fact that has clearly escaped the Express,” Imbert added.
Justice Devindra Rampersad upheld Rambarran’s case in June this year but only calculated the compensation on Tuesday that represents the salary and benefits the former governor would have received had his contract not been terminated by the government before it was due to end in July 2017.
In his ruling, Justice Rampersad said the termination of the appointment on the advice of Finance Minister Colm Imbert was “seriously flawed” and 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 the decision was illegal, null, and void.
Rambarran was appointed to the post in July 2012, and his contract was terminated in December 2015. His dismissal came shortly after he announced that Trinidad and Tobago was in a recession and after he revealed the biggest foreign exchange users in the country.
CMC/
