PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar yesterday chastised Guyana’s political Opposition for its blatant anti-national and anti-developmental thrust, accusing it of deliberately trying to sabotage the development of the country and the bright future of the Guyanese citizens.

He also lamented the fact that the combined Opposition, comprising the APNU and AFC, would not yield to reason or allow better sense to prevail in allowing for the passage of the crucial Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill, in order for Guyana to avoid becoming internationally blacklisted.
“The Opposition simply does not care about the dire consequences its callous and vindictive actions will have on Guyana and the future of our citizens…,” the President told the Chronicle in an invited comment yesterday.
“The Opposition is blatantly pursuing an anti-national and anti-developmental agenda, one that is obviously aimed at destabilising the country and sabotaging the future of our people,” the President declared.
To add credence to his accusations, President Ramotar pointed to several huge developmental projects that have major transformational benefits for the Guyanese people, all of which are aimed at catapulting the country further along its unwavering growth trajectory.
These projects, including the Amaila Falls Hydro-project, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion and modernisation, the Specialty Hospital and the Amerindian Development Fund, have all died a premature death as they fell victim to the Opposition’s political vendetta against the Government.
According to Mr Ramotar, the APNU and AFC (mis)used their combined one-seat majority in the National Assembly to unleash their “brutal assault” on several key developmental allocations in successive national budgets presented by the PPP/C Government in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
President Ramotar was also blunt in his declaration that the Opposition’s budget cuts to projects aimed at providing significant benefits to the Guyanese people, were “politically motivated, vindictive and anti-national.”
He said the Opposition’s latest indication over the weekend that it will not ‘budge’ from its position on the AML/CFT Bill, despite overwhelming support and calls from a wide cross-section of Guyanese and non-Guyanese alike for the Bill’s timely passage, is tantamount to the APNU and AFC’s failure or deliberate inability to “yield to reason.”
President Ramotar indicated that it is also an unmasked intention of the Opposition pushing for, and wanting ‘snap elections’.

BLACKLISTED
Guyana can be formally and permanently blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) if the AML/CFT Bill is not passed by the May deadline.
Guyana has already been blacklisted regionally by CFATF. However, CFATF as well as the international body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), host meetings throughout the year to review progress, as well as advocate changes to tighten the legislative framework that addresses money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
FATF functions as a crucial inter-governmental body, now in its 25th year, in helping to ensure required legal conformity to avoid the evils of money laundering, financing of terrorism and other threats to the international financial system.
The Chronicle, in its Editorial in yesterday’s edition, noted that CFATF has been quite forthcoming in its efforts to help Guyana in overcoming obstacles to avoid being “blacklisted” as a defaulter on required compliance for international financial regulations that are acceptable also to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
It noted, too, that the Guyana Government is on record, as is known to previous representatives of the CFATF who have visited Guyana, and by extension, the FATF itself, as having secured widespread national support for the relevant legislation that it needs to have approved by parliament—namely the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill.
This support has been varyingly repeated by major representative sectors of Guyana, not the least being the country’s trade and investment development partners; leading trade unions with identifiable mass support; as well as other non-governmental organisations.
Now, in accordance with the supportive sentiment much earlier expressed by CARICOM’s Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque, in urging bi-partisan commitment to ensure Guyana’s parliamentary approval of the required provisions in the AML/CFT Bill, a specific offer of help has come from Jamaica. It is a Community partner state that’s quite experienced from its own domestic political and economic travails, with the policies and functions of the CFATF and, of course, the FATF itself.
Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, has made clear in a letter to Guyana and addressed to President Ramotar, her government’s commitment to help in any way possible for securing parliament’s approval of the required AML/CFT bill. Public disclosure of this has significantly coincided with the just concluded visit to Guyana by Chairperson of the CFATF, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, the Attorney General of The Bahamas, and also the body’s Executive Director, Calvin Wilson.

WEEKEND MEETING
APNU Co-Chairman Dr Rupert Roopnarine, told a press conference on Saturday, following a meeting his party had with Ms Maynard-Gibson and her visiting CFATF team, that while CFATF was in Guyana to assist in the passage of the AML/CFT Bill, much cannot be achieved, since the team can only give advice on technical matters.

“The Chairman was careful to maintain that they could only advise on technical matters. The fact of the matter is that we are confronted in Guyana with more than technical matters. It is a political matter…and she is not unfamiliar with Guyana’s political environment. A political solution is needed,” Dr Roopnarine told reporters.

President Ramotar and a Government team also met with the CFATF Chairperson and her team at Office of the President (OP) on Saturday to address the deadlock over the AML/CFT Bill.
Mr Ramotar, along with Presidential Adviser on Governance, Ms Gail Teixeira; Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh; Minister within the Finance Ministry, Bishop Juan Edghill; and the Attorney-General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr Anil Nandlall, were part of last Saturday’s early-morning meeting.
Nandlall, in whose name the Bill was tabled in the National Assembly, has indicated to this newspaper that Government was able to underscore its points of concern very clearly.
“One point that we made clear was that Guyana has a completed Bill that has been examined by CFATF and deemed to be compliant,” Nandlall said.
One of the concerns raised by the Government was the fact that Guyana risks becoming non-compliant in areas the country has already been deemed compliant by CFATF, as a result of the proposed draft amendments.
It should be noted that the proposed draft amendments do not address the completed Bill, on which there is agreement, but rather it seeks to amend the principal act.
The principal act of the anti-money laundering legislation was passed in the Parliament of Guyana in 2009, with the full support of the then Opposition which was then led by Robert Corbin.

MUST PASS
Non-passage of the Bill will not only affect Guyana and its economy, but the Region as a whole.

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 APNU.
APNU’s original three amendments 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. (Additional reporting from Vanessa Narine)
Written By Mark Ramotar