Former Companies Office boss claims victimisation

Former Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ) CEO, Judith Ramlogan, is alleging victimisation in the non-renewal of her contract after two decades at the helm of the executive agency.

Ramlogan, who was also the registrar of companies, told The Sunday Gleaner that she is planning to drag the Government before the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) or the Supreme Court – or both – over outstanding compensation matters.

Before her two-decade stint as CEO, she had served for three years as deputy CEO and director of operations.

Ramlogan disclosed that she was informed that her association with the COJ was coming to an end in a short March 28 missive from the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, under which the state agency falls.

“I write in respect of the captioned position and our meeting held on January 12, 2022. This is to formally advise that a decision has been taken for the position of chief executive officer to be competitively filled. As such, your contract with the Companies Office of Jamaica will not be renewed. The ministry extends thanks to you for your years of contribution to the COJ,” was the full text of the letter sent by Permanent Secretary Sancia Bennett-Templer.

Ramlogan's final day in office was May 31, 2022.

“I think I was victimised because I was told that my contract wouldn't be renewed, but given no basis for the non-renewal. It is not that they have been telling me that they had not been satisfied, given me all the resources and I still didn't show any improvement,” said Ramlogan, who revealed that a previous permanent secretary met with her in 2021 about what was described as “certain inefficiencies”.

“When I asked for an agenda, no agenda was provided,” said the former COJ boss.

Ramlogan told The Sunday Gleaner she was advised to “come alone” – without the other members of the COJ's management team – to the meeting she believed to have been between her, the then permanent secretary and the portfolio minister at that time. But she felt ambushed when she had to face eight other people.

PREPARED TO FIGHT

Ramlogan also said she has not been paid the one-year gratuity she said the Government has committed to paying her out of a possible three years.

“I am going to have to fight for the other two years' gratuity. The matter is going to the IDT. There are certain steps that need to be taken. One is to write to the Office of the Services Commission, which I did. The Services Commission referred the matter to the Attorney General's Chambers. The matter has been reported to the Ministry of Labour in preparation of bringing the case to the IDT,” said Ramlogan.

“I have hired a labour practitioner. We are definitely prepared to go to the IDT and I am to sit with legal counsel to determine whether we take these matters to the Supreme Court as well,” she added, alluding to the possible filing of a wrongful dismissal claim.

According to Ramlogan, she was not appraised annually as per the terms of her last three-year contract, which was signed in 2018 and was scheduled to run until 2021.

“I was appraised this year for the three years. The present permanent secretary came to the ministry in 2021,” she said.

“The permanent secretary called me to her office and said she didn't think it would be renewed, but she would have spoken to the new Industry, Investment and Commerce Minister, Aubyn Hill. That was in January. I got the official letter in March,” Ramlogan added.

The former COJ CEO said a mechanism was devised to conduct her appraisal for the three years, which required an audit of the hard targets that were set. She registered scores in the 60 percentile for two years and over 75 per cent in another.

“I told her (Bennett-Templer) that is not the end of my appraisal. I submitted to her some achievements over the three-year period but she never got back to me,” said Ramlogan.

DECISION ALREADY MADE

She believes the Government had already decided to remove her.

“I think so. I had several discussions with the permanent secretary and she said the ministers are not comfortable because they don't know what I am doing at the COJ, [although] every month I submitted a report in a format that they required,” she added.

Ramlogan also said an evaluation was submitted by Bennett-Templer's predecessor, Dermon Spence, but she was not shown a copy.

“I was not called. Really, it should be a face-to-face evaluation. There seems to have been some memorandum. Even though I asked for it, I did not receive it,” she said.

As a result of the audit, Ramlogan said a decision was taken to only compensate her with one year's gratuity. This remains a point of contention.

“You tell me, for two years I got 60s and for one year I got above the target of 75 per cent, so you're not going to give me a gratuity for those years – and remember, a gratuity acts as a pension – and then after that, you say, 'We are not renewing your contract'? I think that is victimisation,” she claimed.

According to Ramlogan, her contract stated that she needed to have performed satisfactorily and did not specifically mention a 75 per cent benchmark for that standard.

The COJ is an executive agency of the Government and, under the Executive Agencies Act of 2002, the CEO reports directly to the respective portfolio minister, who, by extension, must agree to any appointment or termination.

However, in a Gleaner article last month, Hill described the CEO's removal as a staffing matter that was within the purview of the permanent secretary.

He declined to comment further when contacted by The Sunday Gleaner, given the possible legal challenge.

The minister added that he has not received any formal communication from Ramlogan.

'I LOVED MY JOB'

On Friday, Bennett-Templer was also guarded in her response.

“I really would not get into that matter. I would not get into that kind of discussion dealing with anybody's contract,” she told The Sunday Gleaner.

The COJ is a self-financing public entity that collects fees to finance its approximately $400-million budget each year. It is responsible for registering and monitoring the filings of limited liability companies, business names and charitable organisations. During her tenure, Ramlogan was credited with having led the COJ to the attainment of ISO 9001:2015 quality management system certification for business service, simplifying business registration and significantly cutting wait times for business registration.

She previously pointed to other major achievements as including the introduction of electronic business registration, Jamaica's consistently high ranking in the World Bank's business survey in relation to starting a business, the creation of a new unit to administer the Government's anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism obligations, and administering the Government's Security Interest In Personal Property platform that allows persons to use personal property as collateral.

Ramlogan told The Sunday Gleaner that her heart remains with the COJ.

“I loved my job. I loved the COJ and I will always wish it the best. Those are my final words. I don't know what else to say right now,” she said.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com