THE Parliamentary Select Committee reviewing the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill met yesterday and will continue deliberations today.
Chair of the Committee and Presidential Adviser on Governance, Ms. Gail Teixeira told the Guyana Chronicle that the Opposition is unavailable to meet any other day this week.

“Today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going through the Bill. Last week we had three days, Wednesday to Friday, where we had presentations from the Bankers Association, Dr. Clive Thomas and Christopher Ram and the Bar Association,” she said.
According to her, much of what was presented were commentaries on the Bill.
Teixeira said: “In some cases, we had recommendations for amendments. The task we have now is to review the recommended amendments to ensure they are in line with both CFATF’s (Caribbean Financial Action Task Force) requirements and international standards.”
She noted, however, that the Committee has to be careful in making substantial changes to the legislation.
Teixeira warned: “The Bill, as it stands, has already been approved by CFATF and, if we change it, we will be inviting more problems.”
SIMILAR CAUTION
In a previous interview with this newspaper, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Anil Nandlall, who tabled the Bill in the National Assembly, had issued a similar caution.
He said the Government’s position is that the Bill should not be substantially changed, since, in its current form, it has already secured approval from CFATF.
“We have to be careful with what we are titillating. What is there is what CFATF wants and any changes must be in those parameters (recommendations) or else we run the risk of the Bill now being non-compliant with the recommendations which have already been made,” the AG said.
Nandlall explained that the Bill, which was re-tabled in the House after being voted down by the combined Opposition, is a product of extensive consultation with the CFATF, which had issued an advisory on the need for changes in November 2011.
But with elections in the air then, work was deferred until after the voting.
Nandlall remembered that, after that advice, CFATF officials visited Guyana, examined the local situation, met with the Government, Private Sector, regulatory bodies and other stakeholders; examined the legislative framework and then made their recommendations.
He added that the legislations to give effect to the recommendations were another process that took time.
“Each provision was sent, individually, to CFATF, examined by their specialist and confirmed to have complied with the recommendations,” the AG said.
TIME CONSUMING
“It was a very time consuming process,” Nandlall observed.
According to him, what was recommended could have been made effective by legislation in a piecemeal manner, but the decision was to do this in a more comprehensive manner, particularly foreseeing challenges with the passage in such a way.
He said: “It is a big bill, but it is a comprehensive one that embraces all the recommendations…it was a long process.”
The Committee is expected to conclude its work to meet the French-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) February 13 deadline.
The significance of the approaching deadline has been heightened following a statement by FAFT last week, which listed Guyana as the number one country in the Americas that could be taken on by the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) for review and, possibly, further sanctions due to non-compliance.
The FATF statement said: “The methodology to prioritise jurisdictions in the pool for ICRG review was adopted by the FATF in October 2010.
“It builds on four financial indicators – total value of Domestic Financial Assets (in USD billion); total Domestic Financial Assets expressed in percentage of GDP; Cross Border Interbank Assets (in USD billion) and Remittances Inflows and Outflows (in USD million) – to rank the jurisdictions in the pool from 1 to 10, where the higher final ranking means larger and more integrated financial sector.”
According to the statement, Guyana scored 8.125 out of 10 and it was ahead of Haiti, Aruba, Belize, Suriname, Turks and Caicos Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Grenada and Dominica with scores between seven and three, all countries in the Americas.
It was, as well, at the top of the listing of the jurisdictions in the ICRG-pool in the Africa/Middle East and Asia/Pacific Regions.
In addition to FATF’s deadline, CFATF itself is expected to review Guyana’s position in May 2014 at its next meeting.
Written By Vanessa Narine