–VP Jagdeo urges him to read the Act

WITH reports coming out that recently appointed leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Nigel Hughes, who has made it pellucid that he will not leave his law firm despite there being a conflict of interest with the energy sector, Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has pointed out that the attorney did not read the definition of politically-exposed persons in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act 2009.
VP Jagdeo made this observation in a Facebook post on Sunday, following the publication by a local news agency in which Hughes was quoted as saying he would not break ties with his law firm which represents ExxonMobil Guyana unless he is elected to government.

According to the Act, a politically-exposed person is defined as “Any individual who is or has been entrusted with prominent public functions on behalf of a State, including a head of state or of government, senior politicians, senior government, judicial or military officials, senior executives of state-owned corporations, important political party officials, and a person who is or has been entrusted with a prominent function by an international organisation, at a level of senior management, including directors, deputy directors and members of the board or equivalent functions including family members or close associates of the politically exposed person whether that person is resident in Guyana or not.”

Meanwhile, in a letter carried by this publication, Financial Analyst Joel Bhagwandin highlighted the glaring conflict of interest as Hughes made it public that ExxonMobil Guyana and several of the oil companies are clients of his law firm.

In a comment to the Guyana Chronicle, Bhagwandin said: “Now that he [Nigel]’s elected, [you think] he would come out and publicly say that, ‘I’m terminating all my contracts with all the oil companies, because I can’t be the leader of a political party contesting a national election, regional and general election to be president and I’m working for the oil companies.’

“Then, whose interests are you representing? Are you representing Exxon’s interest, or are you representing the people of Guyana? And that is a general rule of conflict of interest.”