Just one week after distancing himself and party from the Mohamed’s company after news broke of the family being under investigation by the US Government, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Bharrat Jagdeo, has now admitted that the PPP might have received donations from the Mohamed’s family in the past.

“Yes, I think [the PPP], may have received, but I don’t think that it is any different or on any scale that is different than anyone else,” the General-Secretary said while addressing reporters at Freedom House on Thursday.

A special investigation report by the international Reuters news agency, quoted US official sources which have indicated that sanctions could be instituted against the members of the Mohamed family and their companies for allegedly engaging in gold and drug smuggling. According to the report, US government had repeatedly warned the ExxonMobil company against doing business with the Mohameds but the oil company apparently ignored those warnings.

However, Vice President Jagdeo said US authorities have not officially informed the Government of any illegality alleged to have been committed by the Mohameds – one of the country’s wealthiest families.  

“Right now, we have not been officially notified by the US Government that the Mohameds’ are involved in anything. I told you, we have a Reuters story but we can’t operate on the basis of a story but if we receive that notification then everything else follows,” Jagdeo said.

He declined to indicate whether his party would accept funding from the Mohameds in the future, but instead said, the party has not asked the embattled family for money, and he does not expect them to give the party any money either.

Jagdeo said as the General Secretary of the PPP/C, he does not physically collect donations, explaining that the donations are received at Freedom House, the party’s headquarters.

“But big sums or bigger sums would come to me and I have never heard the Mohammed’s name mention in a bigger sum,” he added.

He also ruled out the notion that donors would receive special privileges from the governing party.

“Let me make it clear, if anyone donates to the PPP with the hope that they can do, and I am not saying this about the Mohameds, I am speaking about anyone, with the hope that they can do something illegal and then bypass the system, and get a free pass, they are sadly mistaken,” Jagdeo said.

Just after the election of the PPP government in 2020, the Mohamed’s company won a $614 million contract to build the new headquarters of the Guyana Fire Service.  The company has also taken on other government contracts.

At the recent Local Government Elections, the head of the Mohameds company, Nazar Mohamed, competed as a candidate for the PPP and won his constituency seat on the Eccles Neighbourhood Democratic Council.

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