PRESIDENTIAL Advisor on Governance, and Chair of the Special Select Committee reviewing the Anti-Moneylaundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill, Gail Teixeira, had proposed a meeting for today.

However, in an invited comment, she noted that the Opposition indicated their inability to do meet, and as such the meeting of the Special Select Committee is now scheduled for Wednesday.
According to her, the Opposition seems to be continuing with their “same old” delay tactics regarding the review of the Bill.
In line with the request of the Opposition, persons who had made written submissions during the last Committee’s consideration of the Bill are expected to be given an opportunity to appear before the Committee.
Teixeira acknowledged that several stakeholders had made written submissions. She pointed out, however, that they did not propose any amendments to the Bill.
Among those expected to appear before the Committee are Professor Clive Thomas, Christopher Ram, the Bar Association and the Bankers’ Association.
The Committee Chair said, “The position of the Opposition is that we will not address the contents of the Bill until it goes through these other procedures again.”

STRICT TIMELINE
Teixeira made it clear that the Committee is working with a strict timeline, particularly considering that the French-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is meeting on February 13.
The FATF is expected to hold a review in February, in which Guyana could be included, following CFATF’s designation of Guyana as a country with strategic anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism deficiencies. It was noted that Guyana has not made sufficient progress in addressing the deficiencies and have not complied with the Action Plan developed with CFATF to address this.
NO OPPOSITION AMENDMENT TABLED
She said, “We have next week and the first week of February, that’s all we have. As of today, not one amendment has been tabled or submitted or circulated by the Opposition.”
The Committee Chair stressed the importance of moving ahead with work on the Bill, since Guyana has already missed three deadlines last year – in May, August and November.
Teixeira said, “They can proceed to automatically review us on February 13. We made this clear to the Opposition and in the interest of transparency and accountability, we felt that the presence of the media and other stakeholders as observers of the committee is important to allow the story of the committee to come out, but they had some deep concerns.”
Despite these concerns, the Opposition Leader David Granger has said publicly that he is confident that the Committee will complete its work before the February 13 review.
He said, “I am confident that the deliberations would be completed by that time. I don’t want to put a fine point on it, but the work that needs to be done, there is a memoranda being circulated and there is a body of amendments to be made and as far as I know the committee is working towards it.”
In addition to FATF’s deadline, CFATF itself is expected to review Guyana’s position in May 2014 at its next meeting.
If Guyana is unable to meet the May 2014 deadline, the body is expected to hand Guyana over to the Financial Action Task Force for the International Cooperation Review Group’s (ICRG) evaluation to begin.
Guyana has already been blacklisted by CFATF.
The body, at its 38th plenary meeting this week, called for its members to “consider implementing counter- measures to their financial systems from the ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risks” emanating from Guyana.
CFATF is an organisation of twenty-nine jurisdictions of the Caribbean Basin Region, which have agreed to implement the international standards for Anti-Moneylaundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) and CFATF recommendations.

(By Vanessa Narine)