— new bill introduced

MINISTER of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall last night re-tabled in the National Assembly three Government Bills targeting security reform which were defeated by the Opposition, and introduced a new one.The re-tabled bills are the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) (Amendment) Bill 2013, the Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2013, and the Firearm (Amendment) Bill 2013. The Summary Jurisdiction (Procedure) (Amendment) Bill 2013 was introduced for the first time.
Government, in recognition of the fundamental importance of the pieces of legislation to the lives and livelihood of the people of Guyana, committed to returning the bills to the National Assembly for consideration.

AMLCFT
Government views the AMLCFT Bill as a matter of national importance, and has pledged to give it the highest priority because of its deep-seated importance to Guyanese.
The standing orders in the current construct of Parliament prohibit a bill from being re-tabled after being rejected. However, the relevant standing order says after a bill is defeated at its second reading, then it cannot be brought back within the same session of that parliament. It was not defeated at that reading, but after the third.
The passage of this Bill is now crucial, in light of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s (CFATF) blacklist of Guyana at its November 21 plenary for failing to put in place the anti-terrorism legislation.
If this re-tabled bill does not succeed and Guyana is unable to meet the requirement at CFATF’s plenary meeting in May 2014, then the body will hand over Guyana to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for an International Cooperation Review Group’s (ICRG) evaluation to commence.
This will see the country’s financial infrastructure being put under scrutiny by officials who will visit Guyana. These officials will then make a series of recommendations, all of which will have to be complied with, before Guyana can be removed from the blacklist. The FATF rule is that a country must enjoy 100 percent compliance before being removed from the ICRG process.
The AMLCFT Bill 2013 seeks to amend the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financing of Terrorism Act, No 13 of 2009 and related legislation by strengthening the regime for combating money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, and specifically to meet the recommendations of the FATF.
The Firearm (Amendment) Bill 2013, which seeks to make trafficking in firearms a punishable offence, and the Evidence (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to expand the range of documents/reports that can be admitted as evidence, were both before introduced by Home Affairs Minister Clement to the National Assembly, but were voted down by the Parliamentary Opposition.
The firearms bill, which is also geared towards enhancing the citizen’s security strategy, was defeated by the Opposition on March 14. Opposition Leader David Granger, after the Bill’s defeat, had said that APNU’s vote was solely based on the fact that it was tabled by Minister Rohee who does not enjoy the Opposition’s confidence.
The Summary Jurisdiction (Procedure) (Amendment) Bill 2013 seeks to amend section 8 (2) of the  Summary Jurisdiction (Procedure) Act, Cap.10:02, to allow a person who is issued with a traffic ticket for an offence to pay the prescribed penalty to the clerk of the court of any magisterial district regardless of where the offence was committed.