–Parties refuse to meet before Assembly goes into recess

CHAIR of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee reviewing the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill, Ms. Gail Teixeira, has again been unable to get the combined Parliamentary Opposition to meet before the National Assembly goes into recess.

She told the Chronicle yesterday, “I was finally able to get in touch with Mr. Williams, and what we were told was that the APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) and the AFC (Alliance for Change) will be unable to attend any meeting prior to the recess.”
With the House due to go into recess on August 8 for two months, Teixeira is understandably anxious about the situation, given that in October, when the House comes out of recess, Guyana will be taken up for review by

the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF).
“I have been trying to get a meeting of the Committee for weeks now,”she said. “I suggested July 8 and 10, but was told that the PNCR (People’s National Congress/ Reform) will be hosting its Congress.
“The last date I suggested was July 30, after the Congress, but Mr. Williams has said that the Opposition will be unavailable to attend any meeting prior to recess. He also said that Mr. Ramjattan will be out of the country during the time suggested for the meeting.”
Without a meeting of the Committee to conclude its review of the AML/CFT Bill, she said, the situation remains in limbo, even in the face of possible international sanctions for Guyana.

POLITICAL SOLUTION NEEDED
Speaker of the House, Mr. Raphael Trotman, when asked what he thought about the reticence of the combined opposition to resolve the matter, said that in his humble opinion, a meeting of the Committee will not necessarily break the gridlock preventing the passage of the Bill.
“While I would love to see many meetings of the Committee,” he said, “this matter will not be solved at the level of the Committee.” Rather, he feels it would be best solved by way of a political solution.
“The issues before us requires a political solution…I am one that would like to see this Bill passed, but it will require a meeting of minds, the President and the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the AFC, and it will require compromise on all sides,” Trotman said. He is also of the opinion that consideration of the Bill also demands “a high degree” of putting Guyana first.
“My sense is that both the National Assembly and the people of Guyana are saturated by anti-money laundering; in other words, the issues are clearly defined. However, right now we are expecting too much of the committee at this stage,” he said.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), earlier this month, officially confirmed its decision to commence a targeted review of Guyana, in a letter dated July 9, 2014, prior to its October 2014 plenary meeting.
And the international watchdog body made it clear that the purpose of this targeted review will be to examine the most significant deficiencies in Guyana’s AML/CFT framework that pose a risk to the international financial system. According to FATF, its review will identify steps that should be taken to address those deficiencies through the development of an Action Plan.
FATF said in its letter: “This review will be conducted by the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG), Americas Regional Review Group (ARRG), co-chaired by Ms. Darlene Boileau (Canada) and Ms. Maria Fernanda Garcia-Yrigoyen Maúrtua (Peru).
“In our capacity as ICRG Co-Chairs, we now request your full cooperation in assisting the ARRG to conduct this work, including by providing up-to-date information on your jurisdiction related to AML and CFT issues as requested by the ARRG co-chairs.”
Guyana, according to the letter, will be given an opportunity to review the draft targeted review and to have a face-to-face meeting with the ARRG.
At its next meeting on 20-24 October, 2014, in Paris, France, the FATF is expected to discuss the results of Guyana’s targeted review.

(By Vanessa Narine)