CHAIRPERSON of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and Attorney General of the Bahamas, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, will lead a visit by the regional body to Guyana today for discussions on the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) Bill. Maynard-Gibson will be accompanied by Executive Director of CFATF, Calvin Wilson.

The team will meet with both Government and Opposition members as a result of their concern over Guyana’s situation on anti-money laundering and its outcomes, and to re-emphasise the importance of a Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) compliant bill.
Concerns are that the bill may not be passed by the time of the CFATF plenary, and it is hoped that the imminent meetings with the CFATF members would provide the message to the Opposition about the importance of having the bill passed, and about the repercussions of the failure to do so.
Meanwhile, the select committee tasked with addressing the AML/CFT Bill met on Thursday evening for the first time since the interval to facilitate the 2014 Budget debates. In March, when the Committee met, Attorney General Anil Nandlall had submitted the counter amendments to the APNU’s adjustments prepared by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel.
A Partnership for National Unity’s support is conditional on the President addressing outstanding issues such as the non-assent to Bills passed by the Opposition and the commencement order for the holding of Local Government Elections, among others, while the Alliance for Change (AFC) has called for the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) and more recently, said that it would also support APNU’s demands.

Guyana has been blacklisted by the CFATF, and when it submitted its report earlier this year it was documented that the nation was yet to enact the required laws. CFATF will be holding a review next month at which time it will refer Guyana to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)/ International Corporation Review Group (ICRG). At the FATF review of Guyana, the nation stands to be blacklisted internationally.
The task force maintains that Guyana must pass the relevant legislation and implement all the outstanding issues within its Action Plan, fully criminalise money laundering and terrorist financing offences, address all the requirements on beneficial ownership, strengthen the requirements for suspicious transaction reporting, improve international cooperation and ensure the freezing and confiscation of all terrorist assets, and implement fully the Conventions of the United Nations.
Despite the pleadings of the Administration, civil society bodies, the private sector and ordinary Guyanese citizens, the APNU and AFC remain unmoved and refuse to render their support for the passage of the amendments to the AMLCFT Bill.
Should Guyana be sent to the ICRG by FATF, the process will be extremely critical. Officials will physically visit Guyana and make more recommendations, all of which will have to be complied with before Guyana can be removed from the blacklist. This process could take an average of four to six years while the country is still being blacklisted.
This would cause economic slow-down, and would be a disincentive for anyone wanting to transact business in Guyana.
The principal act of the anti-money laundering legislation was passed in the Parliament of Guyana in 2009, with the full support of the then Opposition led by Robert Corbin.
However, at FATF and CFATF meetings (once or twice a year) the laws are examined and based on international experience, amendments are agreed on to tighten the laws in all the countries. As such, Guyana then moved to amend the Bill based on the recommendations made by the international body. The amended Bill was tabled in December 2013 and then shunted to a parliamentary select committee by the opposition.
In February, CFATF Financial Adviser Roger Hernandez had visited Guyana and met with members of the AML parliamentary committee. He had explained that in order for the bill to be considered by CFATF’s Plenary in May, it would have had to be passed by February 28.
Hernandez said the regional watchdog body has concerns in relation to the amendments that the APNU was proposing to the AML Bill, explaining that some of those put forward deal with previous areas of the Act that were deemed compliant
“The concern that we have is that the amendments put forward may make those areas that were formerly compliant, non-compliant,” he said. (GINA)