A financial sector held back. This was President Donald Ramotar’s summation when he commented on the non-passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill and Guyana’s consequent shortcomings on the issue of international compliance.The consequences of the strangled Bill by the political Opposition continue to be felt by the average Guyanese and, importantly, continue to impact the expansion of the country’s financial sector.

“Ensuring the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill is another reason to go to elections. We have to pass the bill to protect our financial sector,” Mr. Ramotar stressed, in a recent interview.

Three years of political gridlock was culminated by the November 10, 2014, prorogation of Parliament and its subsequent dissolution, which paved the way for the General and Regional elections on May 11.
The President said, “They (the political Opposition) want to prevent our people from having all this….this is what they have been targeting, areas that affect masses of people in the society.
“…they are focused on creating as much damage, putting as many impediments in place to progress….I can only assume that they will drive this country to its knees…I believe they think it will improve their political fortunes.”

“Ensuring the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill is another reason to go to elections. We have to pass the bill to protect our financial sector.” – President Donald Ramotar

FLIP FLOP
Noteworthy is that given the positions taken by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), in the National Assembly, the newly coalesced Alliance, at its launch, promised the passage of the AML/CFT Bill.
The coalition partners promised that this will happen with the formation of a Government of national unity.
Both APNU and AFC had linked conditionalities to their support for passage of the AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill.
APNU proposed three amendments, which were included in the Party’s draft amendments to the Principal AML/CFT Act, which President Donald Ramotar said would be supported by his Government if the Party would agree to pass the AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill. This was rejected.
On the other hand, the AFC, which was fully behind APNU’s position, demanded the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), which the Government has agreed to, providing that Cabinet retains its no-objection role in the process. However, the latter position was rejected by the AFC.
In a further change of position, on May 29, 2014, after the announcement by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), the AFC, in a statement, noted that it is now willing to budge on its position and support Cabinet’s retention of its no-objection role.
NO SHAME
All considered, Mr. Ramotar, also the incumbent Party’s presidential candidate, charged that the political Opposition have “no shame.”
“One thing we saw with PNC (People’s National Congress)-APNU and now with the AFC is the lack of shame, they have absolutely no shame. They do not care about integrity,” he said.
He agreed that to not support the passage of AML/CFT Bill when there was an opportunity to do so, then promise the passage of the Bill if elected, is disingenuous.
“To not pass the Bill meant opening up our country to criminal elements…what we have had to do is ensure that all the non-legislative actions that could close the compliance gap are in place,” the President said.
While challenges remain, in the absence of legislation, Mr. Ramotar said that efforts have been made and recognised by the international oversight bodies.

Guyana, at the end of February, was deemed to have made progress with the non-legislative actions needed to improve its compliance, relative to the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism framework. Therefore the country did not have to field a delegation to the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) most recent five-day plenary in Paris.
Since Guyana was regionally blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force in November 2013, for not having legislation in place, the country was referred to the international watchdog body and subjected to a targeted review.
Under that review, an action plan detailing several non-legislative actions to improve compliance was proposed and September 2015 was set at the drop-dead date for enacting legislation.
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill to meet CFATF’s and, by extension, FATF’s requirements was first tabled in the National Assembly in April 2013, but was referred to a Parliamentary Special Select Committee and was eventually voted down by the combined Opposition in November 2013. The Bill was re-tabled in December 2013, and was again referred to the Parliamentary Special Select Committee, where it languished.

(By Vanessa Narine)