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In a brief interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Friday, Nandlall said the committee has met only twice since its inception, but the Government has placed utmost priority on those meetings, and would have ideally appreciated that the committee meets daily to deal with the Money Laundering legislation with a view to keeping the set deadline, but the opposition members have indicated that they cannot afford to meet on a daily basis.
Chaired by Government’s Chief Whip, Ms Gail Teixeira, the committee comprises APNU’s Basil Williams, Joseph Harmon, Deborah Backer and Carl Greenidge; besides Ministers Nandlall, Rohee, Dr Singh and the AFC’s Ramjattan.
The Attorney-General said that none of the objections thus far raised by the political opposition is substantive, and Government has also acquiesced to an opposition request for public stakeholders to have an input in the work of the committee. As such, advertisements were published in each of the daily newspapers inviting stakeholders to submit a memorandum of their contributions, but the Committee is yet to receive any such submissions from members of the public.
When it was decided to have the matter referred to a special select committee, Nandlall had vehemently objected, saying that while such a route was commendable and was in fact an exercise that should be resorted to in order to provide for greater input, “unfortunately, on this occasion, the option to a Select Committee resort may not be a prudent one.”
This past week, head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, accused the opposition of political misadventure, saying they had hijacked the international obligations placed on Guyana.
“When the original Anti-Money Laundering Act was put in place, like all other state parties, Guyana was evaluated and Guyana continues to be evaluated,” Dr Luncheon said, adding that a 2010 evaluation unveiled weaknesses “that arose from the progress in time from our enactment of the original legislation and more modern practices.”
Dr Luncheon explained that the maturation of money laundering features had to be incorporated “into our legislation…This is understandable.”
The reform, he said, has been a feature of almost every state party that has been a part of the financial action task force.
“We also had to deal with weaknesses in our application of what we committed to in the Act,” he said, as he disclosed that fingers were being pointed at failure of prosecutions, about inadequate investigations, and remedies that had successfully been utilised in other jurisdictions, and were proposed during the multilateral evaluations of Guyana.
He emphasized that the amendments arose from a process, even as he sought to remind that what Guyana is seeking to do is amend the existing law, as against presenting a new one.
Guyana’s incumbent Commerce Minister, Irfaan Ali, has issued this warning regarding failure to meet the May 27 deadline, when the legislation must be in place: “Failing to pass these amendments will affect Guyana’s competitiveness and prevent us from improving our position on the World Bank’s Doing Business Index.”
Should international sanctions be applied to Guyana, there is every likelihood that this development would wreck not just the offshore sector, but also every other internationally-connected sector, from tourism to remittances from citizens working abroad, Minister Nandlall disclosed.
The Special Select Committee is scheduled to meet again tomorrow, when committee members will begin going through the amendments clause by clause.
