Guyana misses another CFATF deadline

THE Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill was not taken to Parliament yesterday, resulting in Guyana missing a critical deadline, as previously indicated by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) advisor, Mr. Roger Hernandez.The Parliamentary Special Select Committee reviewing the Bill failed to complete its work yesterday and adjourned to March 5, after meeting for just under an hour.
The adjournment followed the indication by Chief Parliamentary Counsel (CPC), Mr. Cecil Dhurjon, through a letter to the Committee’s Chair, Ms. Gail Teixeira, that he was unable to complete the drafting of amendments.
Dhurjon, at the Committee’s meeting on Wednesday, received oral explanations and clarifications after posing several questions with respect to the constitutionality of some of the proposed changes by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), as well as their compatibility with the provisions of the Principal Act and related legislations.
The CPC was requested to complete the draft of APNU’s amendments in time for the 11:00 hrs meeting yesterday.
Guyana, today, is required to submit a report to CFATF tomorrow, which must include a copy of the enacted Bill, which will, after analysis, be correlated to the deficiencies identified by the body at its November 2013 plenary meeting, before it reports in May 2014.
That submission has to address Guyana’s plan of action to correct its deficiencies as part of the ongoing process, as well as the conclusions on the AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill.
Between February and May, it is expected that there will be dialogue and discussions with CFATF and the current Administration, with regards to the preparation for reporting to the CFATF Plenary.
If the May Plenary is dissatisfied with Guyana’s progress, CFATF’s November 2013 statement already provides the decision for the country’s referral to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which meets again in June 2014.