Guyana’s best option is to pass the AML Bill
–so as to create a platform for an ‘early as is reasonably possible’ exit

MINISTER of Legal Affairs, and Attorney-General, Anil Nandlall has said that Guyana’s best bet at this time is to pass the contentious AM so as to redeem ourselves somewhat in the eyes of the world at large.
“The best we can do is pass the law; it creates a platform for us to exit as early as is reasonably possible,” he said. He made the observation while giving some insight into the context of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s (CFATF) meeting in Miami from May 26- 29.
He said that all he was able to do during the meet was apprise CFATF that nothing materially had changed from the last formal report, since it was already in possession of the report on Guyana, and its progress, or lack thereof, in the passing of the legislation.
At that meeting, CFATF referred Guyana to its parent body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
He did say, however, that there was some amount of sympathy towards Guyana, but that CFATF had already over-extended itself in attempting to assist Guyana.
“They extended technical support by sending Roger Hernandez to Guyana. They also had a delegation led by the Chairman herself, Ms Allyson Gibson-Maynard, who visited Guyana along with the Technical Director Mr. Calvin Wilson,” he said.
The call by Caricom leaders to have the Bill enacted was also noted by the Minister, as well as calls by the private sector, the diplomatic community, labour movement, religious groups and even the Organisation of American States.
“There was a feeling of sympathy,” he said, “because everyone recognised that here was the welfare of the Guyanese people, and the financial aspects of the economy are being exposed to perilous and devastating consequences, simply at the altar of political bargaining and ransoming by those in charge of the National Assembly.”
He said that the 29 members of the CFATF are well aware of the intricacies of politics across the region, and are of the view that certain matters, due to their nationalistic importance, are beyond a political bargaining process.
There is now a fear of the impact of Guyana’s blacklisting on the rest of the region, according to Minister Nandlall, as “the implications and the repercussions are going to be particularly severe.”
It was described as “a smear on their regulatory resume” by the Minister because, “It’s the first time a country in the region, in recent times, has been subjected to penalties as a result of a lack of commitment…it is a breakaway situation where the Parliament is defying the wishes of the Executive to comply with these regulations. That type of situation has never presented itself”.
Guyana has already been feeling the effects of limited sanctions since a previous deadline, in November, to comply with the CFATF regulations, particularly within the financing and banking sectors, according to Minister Nandlall.
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He described Guyana as being in the first stage of blacklisting by CFATF. “It declares that Guyana has serious financial difficulties in its architecture… the 29 members, as well as the rest of the world are advised to take whatever measures that they see fit to protect themselves”.

Opposition must take blame

With regards to the actions by the political opposition, the Legal Affairs Minister described these as part of a wider attempt to take power. “They want to hijack Government power and responsibility and reside it in the Parliament. You cannot give parliament powers that the constitution has not given it. This Bill stands by itself and should not be tied to anything else.”
He stated that he would dismiss readily any claims by the political opposition that the critically needed bill, should be tied to other actions by government. “Are they conceding then that they are prepared to expose the country to all these sanctions and consequences, if they don’t get what they want? That is what they are saying, and they must accept responsibility for that. Why are they divesting blame from themselves, whenever the issue of responsibility arises as to why the bill was not passed, when they are saying that they will pass the bill if you give me x, y and z?”
Questioned about the opposition’s stated intent to prevent the bill’s passage unless their demands are met, Minister Nandlall responded thus, “CFATF is an organisation that is intrinsic to Guyana, it is foolhardy for anyone to expect CFAT to pointedly say that the National Assembly is falling into error, and to say that in very precise and clear language, you have to understand the nature of the organ you are dealing with. The CFAT used the most diplomatic and circuitous language to say what they want to say”.
With regards the declaration issued by CFATF via a letter to its 29 members, Minister Nandlall said that the proposals that are coming from the opposition, and examined by CFATF do not meet their requirements, “Now you can pack that however you want, if you package garbage with a nice gift paper, inside is still garbage it doesn’t change the content. So those who are saying I’m wrong they can continue to say so, the pith and substance, the gravamen of what is stated in that letter is that the proposals that they have advanced are not recommended by the CFATF, some undermined the autonomy of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), and others interfered with the original bill, and CFATF indicated that it will be premature for them to look at that in the original bill, the Act itself.”

Alien interpretation

He is of the opinion that the opposition seems to have a problem with interpreting the laws and regulations under as, “They continue to say they have a right to cut the budget, although the Chief Justice said that can’t, they continue to say they have a right to gag Rohee although the Speaker and the Chief Justice say they can’t, so these are a grouping of people who regularly read that which is written and come up with an alien interpretation.”
He made reference to the visit by the CFATF’s Advisor, Roger Hernandez, noting that, “Mr. Roger spoke to the committee, and when we came of the committee; their interpretation of what he said was radically different from what I heard, and what the parliament recorded, even the private sector confirmed what Roger said…so I am not surprised, they will interpret anything in a manner to suit their agenda.”
Minister Nandlall opined that the majority of Guyanese will not support the decision taken by opposition parliamentarians. “I have the greatest of respect and confidence in the people of Guyana, the people of Guyana will not want Guyana to be blacklisted”.

GOING FORWARD

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC)  have both made demands which they insist have to be met before they give their support to the bill.
The Minister reiterated that the President has said that he is prepared to make public his undertaking to set up a task force to address their issues. “… one can even attach a time frame to the task force to move the process forward… the Public Procurement Commission is a process that requires two-thirds of the majority in parliament so that is not a process that can happen with the click of a finger. Mr (Khemraj) Ramjattan  must know that the process has begun, he has a representative in the Public Accounts Committee where the process is being undertaken…there are a number of persons, whose applications have to be looked at, but all of that can be expedited …but the serious problem we have is to enact this bill… the enactment of this bill is not the panacea, it will not solve all the problems that are associated with the bill.”
Passing the Bill itself will not automatically extricate Guyana from the conundrum in which it has been placed, he stated.
“Once you come under FATF supervision it is a process and it takes time to graduate out of that process. I don’t think that Guyana is so special that anyone will have an accelerated exit or they are going to provide Guyana with some expedient way of extricating itself. We will have to go through the normal process. Even if the bill is passed tomorrow, they can still subject us to an ICRG review which is a comprehensive review, everything that the CFATF has done already will have to be redone and Guyana will have to go to several countries … to subject the country and its systems to all manner of scrutiny and examination. The bottom line is it will cost us a huge sum of money, it will cost us a tremendous amount of time and while the process is ongoing, we remain blacklisted, so there is nothing conceivably good that can come out of this process and we are there already,” he stated.
“The best we can do is pass the law; it creates a platform for us to exit as early as is reasonably possible,” the Minister concluded
Guyana’s Anti-Money Laundering Bill, despite being deemed by CFATF as compliant with their already stringent regulations, has failed to garner the opposition’s support to ensure its passage. (GINA)