This is a bit off-topic for Alphaville, but an interesting doc dropped into our mailbox and it would be a shame not to share it…

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A hot little row is underway in Egypt at the moment over a fat monthly retainer of $250,000 being paid to US PR firm Glover Park Group (part of WPP) to represent Egypt’s interests in Washington.

Earlier this week, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry was forced to issue a statement arguing that it was commonplace for governments to hire PRs to further their national interests in the US. According to O’Dwyers, a well-followed American PR trade publication, the Egyptian government has claimed that hiring GPG is not a financial burden on the Egyptian people since “an unnamed third-party is picking up the tab.”

Well, here’s the actual contract, signed on October 9 by Carl A Smith, GPG’s chief executive, and Mohamed Tawfik, Egypt’s ambassador to the US. Click to read.

 

The contract states pretty clearly (Items 8 and 9) that the Government of Egypt will be paying GPG. The first payment was due to be paid on October 25 by something called the Operational Unit for Development Assistance, which sits under Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation.

No mysterious third party there. But as O’Dwyers’ Kevin McCauley notes, $250k a month is a big ticket for this industry, even if Egypt’s current rulers face some very real PR challenges.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
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