The People’s National Party (PNP) is today (August 10) accusing the Government of ‘misleading’ the Jamaican public, as more details emerge about the secretive promotion arrangement inked with US-based firm, FINN Partners, for Kamina Johnson Smith’s unsuccessful Commonwealth Secretary-General leadership race. 

Donna Scott-Mottley has levied claims against Robert Nesta Morgan, de facto information minister, urging him to “come clean with full disclosure” around who footed the bill for the three-month, US$99,000 contract with FINN Partners. 

Scott-Mottley, reviewing the recently filed Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) by FINN Partners, was alarmed that Johnson Smith appeared to be listed as the only “foreign principal” on the document. 

The 11-page document also lists Johnson Smith’s address as 2 Port Royal Street, the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in downtown Kingston.

The senator, in a statement this afternoon, questioned the August 7 notice by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), which indicated that the Government was not “a party to this arrangement”, as it was secured through unnamed corporate entities. 

FINN Partners, per the OPM, was contracted to provide “public relations, media relations and thought leadership services for Jamaica’s candidature for the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General”.

“Senator Scott-Mottley noted that in the filing, there are a number of references to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica, and is questioning why was it necessary to refer to the ministry, if the contract was between private parties,” the PNP statement read.

“The Opposition spokesperson said the Government should come clean with full disclosure of who paid US$99,000 for or on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and the Government of Jamaica, the payment dates and the purpose for which the payments were made,” the Opposition added.

Continuing, Scott-Mottley said only full disclosure will satisfy what she called the transparency test.

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