While insisting that no Government monies were used, former Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan has confirmed that it was a Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) that hired lobby firm JJ&B LLC to plead its case in the United States.
Former Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan
Ramjattan made this admission during a video conference appearance on a local radio programme. He was asked by former telecoms executive, Yog Mahadeo, about the fact that the Justice Department listed the Government of Guyana as the firm’s client.
“If there’s the thing that indicated that it is the Government of Guyana that
Caretaker President David Granger
contracted them, I want to make it quite clear it was not the Government of Guyana. It was APNU/AFC.”
“The President was obviously right when he said his Government did not take them on. It’s APNU/AFC,” Ramjattan further explained.
When asked whether President Granger was aware of the hiring of the firm, Ramjattan said that “he probably might not have been.”
“I am aware that we have a contact with that company for purposes of ensuring the narrative is put properly in and around places of power in Washington.”
According to Ramjattan, the narrative is that APNU and AFC want to rig the elections. Ramjattan denied this and insisted that they are within their rights in hiring the firm to counter that narrative.
“I can speak on behalf of the AFC. We will not have any rigged elections in Guyana. And I, as part of that team that said we got to get the narrative right, did indicate that this Government is under tremendous strain [because of people saying] it rigged the elections.”
“Just like how the PPP [People’s Progressive Party] took mercury, what is wrong with APNU/AFC taking on the narrative to be changed?” Ramjattan questioned.
The United States has been at the forefront in mounting international pressure for the March 2 elections results to be credible and transparent, following fraudulent declarations made by embattled Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo.
Mingo’s declarations have since been set aside, and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is now preparing to conduct a total recount of all the votes cast.
As such, the coalition had hired Washington-based lobbyist firm JJ&B LLC to engage the US Department of State on its behalf in changing the narrative on the current political and electoral impasse.
Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon defended the retainment of the firm.
“We believe [that] as a Government it was our duty, our responsibility, to ensure that our narrative – the facts as they occurred – should be placed there in these capitals [around the world]. 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 noted.
In the document filed with the US Department of Justice, which was received by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit of the United States National Security Division on March 31, 2020, the Guyana Government was named the ‘foreign principal’.
In addition, the Ministry of the Presidency was listed as the agency that is being represented by the lobbyist firm; and Harmon was named as the official with whom the company engages.
Despite this, however, Harmon had claimed that the retainer fees of the company which adds up to US$72,000, is being paid by party supporters, and not money from the State’s coffers.
The 147-page document being circulated from APNU/AFC, titled ‘Dossier Guyana Elections 2020’, claims that the PPP has been trying to gain US support to stage a coup against the David Granger-led Government, and that if it were to succeed, then Russia and China will be in control of the area stretching from Venezuela to Suriname.
The dossier has been rubbished in its entirety by Opposition Leader and PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo, who has also expressed disbelief that party supporters paid US$72,000 from their own pockets to contract the firm.
He had pointed out that when the PPP hired lobby firm Mercury, it was paid for from their own pockets and that they had the paper trail to prove it. He had urged the company to release evidence that its funding came from Congress Place and not Government coffers.
