GUYANA, at the end of February, was deemed to have made progress with the non-legislative actions needed to improve its compliance, relative to the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism framework.Therefore the country did not have to field a delegation to the Financial Action Task Force’s five-day plenary in Paris, which ended last Friday.

The disclosure was made by Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon during his weekly post-Cabinet press conference held at the Office of the President yesterday.
He explained that since Guyana was regionally blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force in November 2013, for not having legislation in place, the country was referred to the international watchdog body and subjected to a targeted review.
Under that targeted review, an action plan detailing several non-legislative actions to improve compliance was proposed and September 2015 was set at the drop-dead date for enacting legislation.
ACTION PLAN
The action plan requires Guyana to: (1) adequately criminalising money laundering and terrorist financing; (2) establishing and implementing adequate procedures for the confiscation of assets related to money laundering; (3) establishing and implementing an adequate legal framework for identifying, tracing and freezing terrorist assets; (4) establishing a fully operational and effectively functioning financial intelligence unit; (5) establishing effective measures for customer due diligence and enhancing financial transparency; (6) strengthening suspicious transaction reporting requirements; and (7) implementing an adequate supervisory framework.
According to Dr. Luncheon, the progress under that action plan is reviewed by the Americas Regional Review Group (ARRG).
He added that this progress in implementing the actions outlined in the action plan, as approved by ARRG, was communicated to FATF by CFATF.
COMMITMENT LAUDED
Additionally, the President of FATF, Mr. Roger Wilkins has written to President Donald Ramotar, in response to a letter which the President wrote pledging on behalf of Guyana, the Government’s high level political commitment to implement the action plan.
The letter recognised the high level political commitment which President Ramotar has given to bring Guyana into compliance with the international anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime.
President Ramotar’s letter was hand delivered by Attorney-General Anil Nandlall in Paris, France, in October, 2014 – the date when the action plan was developed.
NEXT ASSESSMENT
Meanwhile, the HPS highlighted that the next assessment, specific to the non-legislative actions Guyana needs to put in place, will be done by ARRG at the end of May 2015.
All considered, Dr. Luncheon stressed the importance of having legislation in place to address an anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism framework that meets regional and international standards.
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill to meet CFATF’s and, by extension, FATF’s requirements was first tabled in the National Assembly in April 2013, but was referred to a Parliamentary Special Select Committee and was eventually voted down by the combined Opposition in November 2013.
The Bill was re-tabled in December 2013, and was again referred to the Parliamentary Special Select Committee, where it has since been languishing.
Since then, Guyana’s Parliament was prorogued, due to political gridlock, and subsequently dissolved, paving the way for General and Regional elections on May 11.

(By Vanessa Narine)