– of being blacklisted

WITH a few days remaining for Guyana to meet the CFATF deadline of having an amended Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) bill, the A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) continues their delay tactics. The Special Select Committee to address the AML/CFT bill met last evening, but the Opposition party again failed to turn up.According to Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr Anil Nandlall, the committee considered the content of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s (CFATF) letter which the Select Committee has received. Minister Nandlall presented to the committee amendments to his counter proposals to APNU’s earlier recommendations which now contain recommendations made by CFATF in their letter.
The Minister said he deleted those aspects that CFATF found to be offensive to his (Nandlall’s) last draft, one that captures a significant number of proposals put forward by the APNU, less those aspects that CFATF found to be objectionable.
Thursday, May 22 is the next meeting and hopefully APNU will attend, he said, noting that Guyana is precariously perched on a precipice of being blacklisted.
However, the Guyana delegation leaves this weekend for the CFATF meeting in Miami on Monday, and it is unlikely that there will be another sitting before the delegation leaves.
Guyana’s delegation will be led by Minister Nandlall, and will comprise Paul Geer, Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), and attorney attached to the unit Alicia Williams.