Today, Members of Parliament under the WIN umbrella tried to get the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hugh Todd to say whether the lobbying firms hired by his ministry had any work to do regarding extradition matters. This was in the Committee of Supply. However, Chairman Manzoor Nadir did not allow the question to be put to the minister, especially because it was lumped with another question about other recent requests for extradition which had nothing to do with the line item being considered at the time.
Before questioning got to that point, Forward Guyana’s Amanza Walton-Desir asked Minister Todd about monthly expense for the continued retention of the lobbying firms.
Minister Todd indicated that the government continues to retain DR Consultancy at US$40,000 per month and Continental Strategy LLC at US$50,000. Todd admitted that there is another firm, which he did not name; neither did he reveal the sum spent on this other firm.
Last year, News Source broke the story that Continental Strategy was being paid by the Government of Guyana and was actively involved in cajoling US politicians to release tweets tarnishing the name of Azruddin Mohamed, linking him to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.
