ALLIANCE For Change (AFC) Leader, Nigel Hughes has said that there was nothing “unusual” about his wife, Former APNU+AFC Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes awarding her company, VideoMega Productions Limited, more than $6 million in contracts from the ministry which she presided over between 2015 and 2020.

During a press conference on Friday, Hughes defended his wife by saying that her company was contracted for years by the government, so when she became a minister, he did not see anything odd with her company gaining contracts from her ministry.

“So, when Mrs. Hughes became Minister of Public Telecommunications, there was nothing unusual about the fact that the government continued to hire the services of that company, because they had been doing that for years,” he said.

Although both Mr and Mrs Hughes have been criticising officials for supposed conflict of interest, they themselves have been found guilty of committing the same.

The AFC Leader, who is likely to make a bid for presidency later this year, is one of the attorneys representing ExxonMobil, and he has made it clear that he will not put the interest of Guyana above his client because he has refused to speak about oil related matters unless, according to him, he is elected to office.

Also, the credibility of the AFC Leader was further questioned when he was recently accusing the government of selling large amounts of land to its allies, and it was revealed that he himself benefitted from 75 acres of land after the passage of the 2018 no-confidence motion, and during the five-month impasse after persons would have cast their vote on Polling Day in 2020.
Hughes’ wife, who is a senior member of the AFC, faced a plethora of criticisms for her actions as Minister of Public Telecommunications; however, she could not sue anyone, because there was substantial evidence to prove her actions.

In a court case, last year, she was asked why she didn’t sue Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo for his comments on the issue regarding her company, to which she responded by saying she knew he possessed documents to substantiate his claims.

Hughes, in 2019, had denied the awarding of contracts to her company.
She went as far as to say: “…I was completely unaware of the award of any contract to Video Mega Productions.”

Hughes had claimed that she was informed that the contract was for the production of three 60-second television Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to the value of $832,200.
However, with the provision of supporting documents, this figure was later proved to be untrue, and a severe underestimation.
It was widely reported that Video Mega Productions Limited, secured contracts totalling over $6 million.

Hughes’ actions were seen as a clear conflict of interest, since she held a position of influence.
She had signed off on an invoice payment of $119,670 to Videomega, for ‘boosting’ her ministry’s Facebook Page from January 2018 to June 2018.

Two years prior, in 2016, the company received $1.13 million in payments for ads; in 2017 $1.4 million in payments for ads; in December 2017, $68,400 for “Community ICT Hub- ICT in Education (Transfer of footage) (Collation of Video Footage MOPT)” in July 2018 $2.33 million for “Community ICT Road Show, 2018- Television & Radio, Caribbean ICT Radio Show, 2018- Advertising Ress Ads, Caribbean ICT Road Show- Camera-ready Artwork”, Berbice Advertising “Caribbean ICT Road Show, 2018- Television Commercial- 45 secs” and even an interview with Hughes herself, “Caribbean ICT Road Show, 2018- Television 33 secs” and “Caribbean ICT Road Show, 2018- 33 secs Radio”; and $956,519 for Publishing of Advertisements for “ICT Planning Officer- 8x3BW, ICT Education Officer- 8x3BW, ICT Business Analyst-8x3BW, Technical Admin. Assistant – 10x3BW”.