ATTORNEY General Anil Nandlall believes the political Opposition is deliberately attempting to dilate and detain the process involved in effecting amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act (AML/CFT) before the new deadline of August 26. But he is hoping the Opposition can be persuaded as to the importance of this bill, and not subject it to political games.

Addressing a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) press briefing at Freedom House in Georgetown yesterday morning, he reiterated that if the amendments to the AML/CFT are not passed by August 26, Guyana could end up being listed with other delinquent countries, and would be visited with a regime of sanctions, which would include restrictions in the manner of conducting business internationally, especially where wire transfers of funds are concerned.

Once placed on that list of delinquents, Guyana could languish thereon for an average of about seven years before being taken off, during which time Guyana would have to undergo stringent scrutiny on procedures used in transacting business across borders.

Guyana had been given a timeline to effect the passage of the amendments before last May 27, but this was not done. The bill subsequently remained in Parliament.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog against financial crimes, met in Nicaragua from May 27-30 last with intention to examine how Guyana and other countries in the Caribbean are meeting international obligations, and it was here that the country was granted a November extension.

However, officials later learned that the amendments must be enacted by August 26 before the bill could be considered in November.

“The party reiterates how important this bill is to our national interest. Nothing good can emanate from it if we are not complying with the recommendations put to us by the CFATF on money laundering,” Nandlall expressed yesterday.

The Opposition has since adopted a “go slow” approach to working on the bill, is not prepared to meet frequently, and would see only one member of the public per day, when more can obviously be seen, Nandlall explained.
Asked why the government chose to bring the bill to the National Assembly at the last minute, Nandlall’s response was that Guyana was under assessment for a year and a half now, and the recommendations in legislative form did not come all at the same time, but instead over a period of time.

“The last set of recommendations came to us as late as early March of 2013. We thought a better course was to capture all the amendments in a singular compendium and present them for passage in the National Assembly, and that is what this amendment seeks to do,” Nandlall explained.

Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon recently told this newspaper that government is “totally” convinced that the time provided is more than enough to have the most adequate consideration of a CFATF endorsed and approved legislation.

“We are confident about that. I recognize that there may very well be some urge to have literally the most perfect amendment bill. Money laundering is becoming more and more technical. It is becoming more and more sophisticated, and the legislative responses will have to grow and keep up; so we mustn’t delude ourselves that there will be a point in time when we will have the most absolute, the most comprehensive piece of legislation,” Dr Luncheon remarked.