U.S. Charge d’Affaires, Bryan Hunt, during discussions with Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams, made promises of collaborative efforts between the U.S.A. and Guyana to “… improving criminal justice and bringing to account those who are guilty of crimes.”Among the issues discussed was the importance of Guyana’s pending money-laundering legislation, and Hunt stressed the imperative and expressed confidence that Parliament will approve the legislation by the September deadline.

According to Hunt, “We fully support the Government in that objective. It’s going to be very important that the legislation is passed by the September deadline for submission to the Financial Action Task Force before its October meeting.”

However, Hunt cautioned that the current format and structure of the bill should be retained and noted “[It] has been reviewed by a number of international bodies…. If the bill were to be passed in its current form, then it would be fully compliant with the recommendations that have been put forward by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force [CFATF], and the global Financial Action Task Force.” [FATF].

It is hoped by all stakeholders that the bill would eventually be passed in parliament in its current format in a timely manner to avoid sanctions by FATF which would have severe negative impacts on this nation’s economy that will redound to the general public, with all its implications and consequences.

The legislators of the land need to take cognisance that sanctions against this country by FATF for non-compliance of the AML/CFT bill would not be easily reversible and their deliberations should take this factor into consideration.

Citizens of a country elect a Government to serve their best interests and one best interest of Guyanese is for a fully-compliant AML/CFT bill to be passed in parliament in a timely manner to avoid sanctions by FATF.