No taxpayer $$$ used to hire lobby firm

Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, has asserted that the Coalition’s hiring of a US-based firm was done with campaign contributions and not monies from the government’s coffers.

“This is not funding from the government. We have supporters around the world who are very incensed, who are upset that this kind of narrative continues to be perpetuated daily and have come forward to say, ‘what can we do to help”, DG Harmon clarified.

The narrative the Director-General referenced is a series of accusations levied against the APNU-AFC Coalition by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) during the March 2 General and Regional Elections process.

In a release on Wednesday, the PPP accused the APNU+AFC of using public funds to pay for the promotion of its party by US company, JJ&B LLC.

However, Harmon explained that in the interest of the Coalition, the campaign funded US-based firm was hired to set the record straight on the false accusations and to protect the image of the work done by the Coalition while in government.

“We believe as a government, it was our duty, our responsibility to ensure that our narrative, the facts as they occurred, should be placed there [on the international stage]. We felt it was necessary to have a company that has that access to be able to put out our side,” he noted.

The PPP has been sending its own reports of what took place in Guyana during the elections period through Mercury Public Affairs – a controversial American firm. However, the hiring of the firm commenced since in 2019.

The Director-General stated that the dossier circulating on social media with regards to the coalition’s hiring of JJ&B LLC is no secret as it was shared with CARICOM leaders during a visit to Guyana.

“We had shared that dossier to the heads of CARICOM while they were here. The Prime Ministers of CARICOM [countries] were given copies of that dossier. It was circulated to other places, but it is now getting traction because of where it is coming from,” he said.

“I believe that, as a country, as a government, we have a right to ensure that the developments which have taken place in this country, that they ought not to be derailed by a narrative which goes out there that is contrary to the facts of what is happening here in Guyana.”