Dear Editor,
In January 2024, SphereX Professional Services Inc. landed a “conditional” contract with ExxonMobil Guyana (hereinafter “EMGL”) to provide analytics and advocacy services in favour of EMGL.
SphereX’ s Director, Mr. Joel Bhagwandin, under whose hand the aforementioned deliverables are disseminated to the media, set out a strict conditionality to the client, EMGL, prior to accepting the contract. In this regard, the Director established unequivocally at the outset that the firm will not advance and / or advocate for any position that would be favorable exclusively to EMGL and unfavorable to the Government of Guyana—and more so against the national interest.
Through the said contract, EMGL also solicits professional advice on Government Affairs and political matters on certain sensitive issues.
Recently, the Director of SphereX, Mr. Bhagwandin has taken a strong position against EMGL with regard to the incestuous relationship that EMGL insists on maintaining with the newly elected leader, namely Mr. Nigel Hughes of a political party (the AFC) in Guyana.
Mr. Bhagwandin had written several strong missives to this effect in the mainstream media and including an exclusive interview on the subject on National Television. This is despite the violation of EMGL’s internal anti-corruption policies and political activities guidelines that unambiguously prohibits funding of political candidates in any form whatsoever, in countries other than the United States of America.
Subsequently, EMGL sought Mr. Bhagwandin’s views as regards the above concerns raised by Mr. Bhagwandin himself within the public domain and more importantly, the Government of Guyana. EMGL’s main concern was that “how long would this last”, to which Mr. Bhagwandin responded, until EMGL remedies this situation by complying with their anti-corruption and political activities policies.
Mr. Bhagwandin went a step further suggesting to EMGL that if they are opposed to terminating the contract with the law firm entirely that the AFC leader is affiliated with, then the minimum that they can at least consider is to insist on the law firm ring-fencing their relationship internally. In so doing, Nigel Hughes should no longer be the attorney dealing with the EMGL portfolio on behalf of the law firm, which is what he had disclosed to the public, but that was quickly disproven.
Mr. Bhagwandin suggested, further, that if EMGL considers this option, that it would have to be done in a manner that is satisfactorily transparent for the stakeholders involved, mainly the Government of Guyana.
It would appear, however, that EMGL has no such intention (unsurprisingly) to do anything about these major concerns. In this respect, it can be argued that EMGL is no longer engineering a covert political project, but an overt political operation aimed at influencing the outcome of the upcoming general and regional elections in 2025; wherein EMGL may prefer to have a government that would serve their exclusive interests, as was arguably the case under the former coalition government.
In a highly anticipated move by our client, EMGL, today (July 14, 2024) EMGL’s focal point with SphereX, invited our Director, Mr. Bhagwandin, to discuss putting our contract on pause until after the elections. Mr. Bhagwandin unhesitatingly responded in the negative, and instead immediately communicated that in the circumstances, he prefers to terminate the contract between EMGL and SphereX with immediate effect.
The referenced contract has since been terminated by SphereX with EMGL.
Yours respectfully,
Joel Bhagwandin
