Apr 17, 2020 News
By Shikema Dey
Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, sought to clarify reports that taxpayer dollars were used in the hiring US lobbying firm JJ&B, LLC.
A string of documents, including a detailed dossier entitled “Guyana Elections 2020” were made public as per the requirement of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires the company to publish details of the agreement between their clients.
The Director-General is listed in documentation filed as the government contact, and it states clearly that they were hired by the Government of Guyana. The public documents can be found online via the United States Department of Justice website.
Per the agreement entered into on March 31, 2020; the lobbyist firm is expected to facilitate resolution of disputes regarding the recent presidential election in Guyana, and to improve relations between Guyana and the United States.
Additionally, the documents show that the firm, hired on a part-time basis, was paid an initial retainer fee of US$40,000 for April.
Harmon claimed that “upset” coalition supporters were the ones who are funding the government hire. At a media engagement yesterday, Harmon said “I would say to you that this is not funds from the government.”
He added that “we have supporters from around the world who are very incensed, who are upset that this kind of narrative continues to be perpetuated on a daily basis and have come forward to say ‘what can we do to help?’.”
“Our supporters come together and put they ‘lil $100, $1000 and things like that and they are paying for this…no money has come from the government.”
The Public Relations Firm was contracted by the incumbent to revert the “false narratives” being peddled by the Opposition People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) in the international community through its PR firm, Mercury Public Relations.
Government has insisted that condemnation from the international community of the controversial Region Four results tabulation has been orchestrated by the PPP and its public relations firm.
This firm, Harmon stressed, was hired to perpetuate those very “false narratives”.
The Director General pointed out that it was necessary for government to hire a Public Relations firm to dispel the narratives that the PPP was peddling to the international community.
“We believe as government that it was our duty, our responsibility to ensure that our narrative, the facts as they occur, should be placed there in these capitals, and therefore we felt it was necessary to have a company that has that access to be able to put out our side of the story,” he disclosed.
Added to that, Harmon made it clear that “we have a right to ensure that the developments which have taken place in this country; that they ought not to be derailed by virtue of a narrative which goes out there that is contrary to the facts of what is happening here in Guyana.”
Further, the dossier being circulated, according to Harmon, was prepared some time ago and circulated to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Prime Ministers of Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines who had visited Guyana recently.
