IT is public knowledge that for years, Guyana’s economy saw two forces at work: The formal and underground. The extent to which the latter was allowed to hold sway in the society has been debated, though not refuted. The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) government has always denied the presence or significance of the underground economy. To the average man and woman, the construction of massive buildings around the country, and the opening of businesses, where the latter, in some instances, never see heavy customer traffic, contradicted any denial.

Professor Clive Thomas, in his several writings on the criminalised State, by which he had referred to Guyana under the PPP administration, had pegged the underground economy at around 60 per cent. He had said then: “The phantom economy is what I call it…is being driven by three forces: Tax evasion, evasion of regulatory oversight in terms of those agencies like the Gold Board, for example, and it is also driven by criminal firms who thrive on businesses that seek to generate gains for themselves in terms of theft from certain activities.”

Even those who’d denied, or thought Thomas’s figure was high, something had to be amiss in any society where government would allow illicit economic activities and seek not to eliminate them. There was a time in this society when no one would have doubted the influence of drug lords in the economy and State, with a forcible reminder being the infamous Shaheed “Roger” Khan.

Aside from Khan’s questionable wealth, some of which could have been used in the purchase of assets, there was the full-page newspaper advertisement taken out by him, admitting that he’d played a role in supporting the Bharrat Jagdeo government in crime-fighting. Crime-fighting is the purview of the State, and where Khan was bold enough to make such a claim, which was not refuted by the PPP/C government, lends to further evidence of forces that were at play in undermining the legitimacy of the State and the safety of the people.

There can be no credible denial that the Guyana Revenue Authority, though conscious of the presence of illegal money, seemed constrained, or reluctant, to go after questionable characters under the PPP/C Government. Ostentatious wealth was flaunted in the face of the State, whose government seemed unwilling to investigate and hold persons accountable to the law. Another factor in our polarised society, is that those who dared to address the problem were dismissed, verbally assaulted, or accused of being envious of the questionably ‘industrious’.

Evidently, what may have been the appearance of legitimate business and investment might have well been funded with questionable (laundered) money propping up the formal economy. The acknowledgement of this, however, does not ignore the cyclical nature of economies, where features of growth and the slowing down of growth are evident, or the need for corresponding acts to manage same.

And whereas the PPP/C government sought ways and means to avoid tackling bad money in the system, apparently to lend perception of buoyancy, that the APNU+AFC government has taken this bull by the horns is commendable. Sourcing the integrity of it, the persons involved, and the authentication of residency in money transactions, banking and otherwise, have formed part of the new regulatory system. It is, therefore, not surprising that the U.S Department of State, in its recent report, said Guyana has made significant progress on Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and though it urges more investigations and successful prosecutions are needed, it concluded that the President David Granger Government has shown the political will to tackle this scourge.

In a further demonstration of this commitment, Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, said that cognisant of the challenges and risks it currently faces in the fight to combat money laundering, Guyana recently appointed a new assistant solicitor-general with responsibility for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).

The legal affairs minister said, too, that Guyana’s National Risk Assessment (NRA) report has identified and acknowledged that cambios and money-transfer entities pose a high risk to the AML regime. In 2018, the Ministry of Legal Affairs announced that a risk-based supervisory approach would take effect to closely monitor money transfer services and cambios. Coupled with that, the Legal Affairs Ministry has been conducting a series of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) outreaches and sensitisation seminars as it seeks to raise awareness and build capacity. Minister Williams said, this year, the Legal Affairs Ministry will be intensifying its efforts through countrywide outreaches and other initiatives.

Initially, the fleeing informal economy had led many to believe that it was the bad economic policy of the current government, as it had resulted in the slowing down of economic activities. They have now come to recognise that it was the regulating of the economy to weed out the underground economy, which brings with it not only a false sense of prosperity, but many social ills, many of which were unleashed on the society over the past few decades.