THE National Coordinating Committee of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) met on Monday to examine a range of issues flowing from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Plenary Meeting and Working Groups, held at OECD Headquarters in Paris, France last month.
Chaired by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams, the meeting discussed post-Nation Risk Assessment Action Plan as well as a strategic plan for the mutual evaluation of Guyana which is set for 2021 and a work programme.
Additionally, the meeting proposed a seminar for the supervisory agencies and for the training of assessors next month, and to examine FATF recommendations and immediate outcomes.

The coordinating committee comprises agencies such as the Bank of Guyana, Special Organised Crime Unit, Guyana Revenue Authority, Securities Exchange Commission, Financial Intelligence Unit, Guyana Gold Board Gaming Authority, Director of Public Prosecutions, Attorney General Chambers; Chief Cooperative Development Officer and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission. The council is chaired by Williams who is also chairman of the Caribbean Action Task Force.

The Guyana Chronicle understands that government intends to give this body more standing by repealing the legislation that establishes the AML/CFT Authority. Last week government delayed the establishment of the AML/CFT Authority since according to Williams, the proposed body is against the recommendations of FATF. He said the National Coordinating Committee is more in keeping with FATF recommendations.
Minister of Social Cohesion and Chairman of the Committee on Appointments, Dr. George Norton, instead of putting the motion forward for adoption as scheduled on the order paper, stood before the House to request that the report be deferred. Those recommended by the Committee on Appointments to sit on the authority are Nicholas Deygoo and Captain Gerald Gouveia of the PSC; Wayne Eucaulton Fordyce of the Association of Bankers; Hance Manohar of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana; Thomas Bissessar and Frederick Collins of the TGI; Mohamed Alli and Christopher Ram of the Bar Association; Melissa De Santos of the Insurance Institute of Guyana; and Sadie Amin of the Guyana Association of Women’s Lawyers.

Dr. Norton’s request prompted Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira to object immediately, noting that the Committee on appointments had worked tirelessly on putting the names together and she found it “highly irregular on the part of the Chairman to come to this House and ask for deferral without enlightening the House the reason”.
Teixeira argued that the process was held up twice before in the 10th Parliament and should no longer be delayed. “Is it that the ten names the Committee worked hard to bring to this House … are they no longer fit and proper?” asked the Opposition Chief Whip.
However, Williams informed the House that there is good reason for a request for deferral of the adoption of the sixth report on the Standing Committee on Appointments to address the appointment of members of the AML/CFT Authority. “The AML/CFT is a regime that is here to stay and it changes with each round – rules are made and rules are changed – and the idea is to conform to the recommendations of the FATF and CFATF…,” said Williams.
He explained that the Authority was established on the FIU and that recommendations were initially made for 12 positions to be identified by the parliamentary committee to be appointed by the Parliament. However, there was a provision for 13 ex-officio members to be appointed, thereby bringing the total to twenty-five persons. “Under the last Government the AML-CFT regime was the FIU. Guyana was the only country in the 25 nations in CFATF that had one element of a national coordinating committee… We now have Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), (and) Bank of Guyana (BOG)…,” he stated.

Williams reminded the House of the challenges Guyana faced just before exiting the third round of evaluation. “We took ourselves out of the hole. Therefore, we recognise that it is not a good thing to go into holes … the CFATF has written to us indicating that the national authority which is the FIU has no relevance,” said Williams who referenced a Memorandum he received from the executive director of the CFATF dated January 3, 2018. “If we keep the Authority, we could end up in the black hole again,” declared Williams.