– Finance Minister

THE Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and other State agencies, which are part of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) architecture, have been diligently addressing the non-legislative recommendations of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).

Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh made the disclosure, last Wednesday, when fielding questions in the National Assembly on the functioning of the FIU.
Members of Parliament (MPs), that day, approved $73.7M, an increase over $51M in the previous year, for the FIU to continue its work.
The Minister explained that, while Guyana has achieved successes with the non-legislative recommendations, the non-enactment of the AML/CFT Bill leaves much to be desired by CFATF.
“To say nothing is done is wrong. We have made successes here (with the non-legislative recommendations), what is left is the enactment of the legislation, the legislative recommendations of CFAFT,” he acknowledged.
Guyana missed the February 28 date, when this country was required to submit a report to CFATF, which was expected to include a copy of the enacted Bill, that would, after analysis, be correlated to the deficiencies identified by the body at its November 2013 plenary meeting, before a report is made in May 2014.
Guyana, unfortunately, was only able to report on the non-legislative recommendations by CFATF.

MAY PLENARY
If the May plenary is dissatisfied with Guyana’s progress, CFATF’s November 2013 statement has already made clear the decision for the country to be referred to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international body, which meets, again, in June 2014.
The AML/CFT Bill is still with the Parliamentary Special Select Committee, which is reviewing it and is, currently, waiting on Chief Parliamentary Counsel Cecil Dhurjon, to complete a new draft that includes more amendments to the initial ones proposed by A Partnership for Unity (APNU).
APNU’s original three proffer a change to the entire governing apparatus of the FIU; removal of the Attorney General wherever that name appears and replacement of it with the FIU; and vesting a Police or Customs officer with the power to seize currency from any person, anywhere in Guyana, if those officers have reason to believe that it is the proceeds of crime or will be used to fund criminal activities.
In addition to their proposed changes, APNU is also calling for the Head of State to assent to several Bills he returned to the National Assembly with the explanation that they were unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the Alliance for Change (AFC), which supports APNU’s position, is demanding the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), that Government has agreed to, providing that Cabinet retains its no-objection role in the process but the latter has been rejected by the AFC.

(By Vanessa Narine)