GraceKennedy, Musson Group contributed to Johnson Smith’s $15m C’wealth PR budget

Businessman Keith Duncan and companies GraceKennedy and the Musson Group contributed to the payment of US$99,000 or J$15 million for public relations services for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith's failed bid for the Commonwealth Secretary General post.

The names of the part funders, who gave permission to be named, were disclosed in Parliament today by de facto information minister Robert Morgan during a question and answer session.

Morgan was responding on behalf of Prime Minister Andrew Holness, to whom the questions were posed by Opposition member Julian Robinson.

Morgan disclosed that the two companies and Duncan said they had no problem with their names being disclosed.

However, the other persons or companies reportedly did not give permission for their names to be revealed, according to Morgan.

Previously, the Government had indicated that it was not in a position to disclose the names of the private sector companies that donated about $15 million for public relations and thought-leadership services from international marketing firm Finn Partners for Johnson Smith.

Morgan also named PR Etcetera Limited as the company which won a bid through the Government's procurement process to protect the image of the candidacy of Johnson Smith.

It is not clear how much PR Etcetera Limited was paid under that contract as Morgan explained Tuesday afternoon in Parliament that resources from the $5 million spent by the Government for public relations and communications had to be used also to defray costs for graphics, photography and for printing costs at the Jamaica Information Service.

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