GOVERNMENT will be exploring avenues, including a consensus position with at least one of the two Opposition parties in Parliament, to retable the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of the Financing of Terrorism (AML /CFT )Bill in Parliament as soon as is reasonably possible.

Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Anil Nandlall said that the main objective is that the amendments which have been rejected by the Opposition ought to be passed before February 2014, so that Guyana will no longer be a country with identified deficiencies in its AML/ CFT legislation.
“If we are able to pass this Bill, if not before February, then by May, 2014, Guyana can extricate itself from this list that it finds itself on and we can be restored to some level of normalcy.
He stressed that on failing to do this, Guyana will have gone onto a very advanced stage in terms of failure to comply with the policies and the guidelines set by the by AML CFT Regulatory bodies; and as a result, will be handed over to the Financial Action Task Force International Cooperation Review Group (FATF ICRG) which will then take charge of Guyana.
He made the comments during a media conference at the People’s Progressive Party’s Headquarters, Freedom House, yesterday, while speaking on the recent adverse assessment of Guyana by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).
Commenting on the future prospects of the Bill, he stressed that the government cannot retable the Bill in Parliament on its own volition.
At least one opposition party has to co-operate, because the entire Standing Orders will have to be amended to allow the Bill to go back.
Additionally, government would not want to retable the Bill unless it can be assured that it will receive support because the country can find itself in even greater difficulty if the Parliament rejects the Bill a second time.
He said that once an opposition party signals its cooperation, government will begin the process to see the Bill back in Parliament as early as is reasonably possible.
Commenting on the Alliance For Change (AFC) insistence on the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission(PPC) as a condition for their support, he said that the fact that the AFC wants a procurement commission has nothing to do with the Bill, even in the realm of political negotiations, since such negotiations have to be done on principle.
He said that any person who is familiar with the law should know that the establishment of a commission is a long process and the establishment of the PPC could not have been completed in the time that was available for the passing of the AML CFT Bill.
Commenting on his experiences at the CFATF forum, he said that when he spoke at the CFATF event he could not have given any sensible reason as to why the Opposition rejected the Bill.
He said, “The issue was raised about our internal problems and I was told quite frankly and candidly that that is a jurisdictional responsibility, and CFATF and FATF are unconcerned about the internal politics of a country.”
He said that the AFC has to understand that there is a world out there that cares very little about the internal politics of Guyana. They don‘t care about the problems we have. We are orbiting in a different space here.”
He stressed too that contrary to what was said, Guyana did not have the latitude to put into the Bill anything it wanted to put in.
“This Bill is not a Bill that you can amend at large. This is not a Bill that the Government concocted or fabricated; it’s a Bill that we had to amend within the parameters stipulated by the persons whose directions we are giving effect to, namely the CFATF. This is a Bill that came directly out of recommendations made to Guyana by the CFATF.”
“They came to Guyana and they studied and examined our financial architecture and our legal architecture and they met with several high ranking officials in the financial sector as well as in the Government and they drafted what they described as an action plan.”
He stressed that it was a time-driven action plan with timelines attached to all the tasks that has to be instituted under the action plan. Guyana could not go at its own pace.
“You cannot have a good bill at your own whim and fancy. We are operating under directions of a governing body and when you don’t operate within the timeframe given and do not execute the tasks which have been assigned, you face sanctions, and that is where we are today.”
He confirmed that Guyana has been effectively blacklisted, along with Belize.
He said he could not say at this time what the effects of the blacklisting will be but noted that at least one bank in the United States, namely Citibank, had severed ties with local banks as a result of the adverse assessment of Guyana by CFAT.

(By Clifford Stanley)