THE National Assembly today makes its last sitting before the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meets on Monday.

This is a critically important development, given that Guyana has been referred to the FATF by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), effectively blacklisting the nation internationally.

Attorney-General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, told the Chronicle that the main Opposition’s unavailability to meet on Monday in the Parliamentary Select Committee which is reviewing the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill has cemented the country’s fate when it is reviewed by FATF.

“The last opportunity which would have been available for us to send the bill to CFATF, for them to present to FATF on behalf of Guyana, has been lost,” he stressed.

Three versions of two bills are currently before the Committee: the Government’s AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill; APNU’s draft amendments to the Principal AML/CFT Act; and the AG’s counter-proposals, which addressed the problem areas in APNU’s amendment, the latter enjoying 80 per cent agreement, with the exceptions relating to governance and the roles of the President, Government Ministers and the National Assembly within the AML/CFT framework.

Last Friday, Government indicated its willingness to compromise on the three “sticking points” that are delaying agreement on the Bill, but this overture was rejected by the Main Opposition.

Minister Nandlall said, “All the Chairperson’s efforts to convene a meeting before (today’s) sitting of Parliament have been futile, although the Chairperson indicated to the Opposition members that Government is prepared in the Committee to narrow the gap between the two proposals that are before the Committee.

“The Opposition, to date, did not accept any offer to meet before (today’s) sitting.”

EXITING FATF
The AG also bemoaned the fact that, once included in FATF’s International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG), exiting the process could take between four and seven years.

In a prior interview, Nandlall noted that the time a country takes to “graduate” out of FATF’s ICRG process is dependent on the nature and magnitude of its anti-money laundering deficiencies and the speed at which those deficiencies are rectified.

“Once you come under FATF supervision, it is a process, and it takes time to graduate out of that process. Generally, the empirical data of countries that have been subject to this process (indicates that it takes) from four to seven or more years, as the case may be,” he said.

The AG pointed out that the review itself is a “comprehensive process” that will include the review that was already done by CFATF. He said: “Recommendations will be made all over again. We will have to pass laws, and implement administrative policies, and set up recommended mechanisms and institutions that are so recommended.

“…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 AG stressed that the process is a very costly one. “The bottom line is it will cost us a huge sum of money, it will cost us a tremendous amount of time,” he declared.
Nandlall maintains that the passage of the AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill was the best chance that Guyana had at avoiding inclusion in FATF’s International Cooperation Review Group process.

The enactment of the AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill before CFATF’s meeting in May could have, by all accounts, averted Guyana’s referral to CFATF, particularly since that body noted that 90 per cent of the deficiencies identified are legislative in nature.

The Bill to meet CFATF’s requirements was tabled in the National Assembly in April 2013, but was referred to a Parliamentary Special Select Committee, and was eventually voted down by the combined Opposition in November 2013. The Bill was re-tabled in December 2013, and was again referred to the Parliamentary Special Select Committee, where it has since been languishing.

Guyana is, to date, grappling with regional blacklisting which was implemented by the CFATF last November. It has also been referred to the FATF by the CFATF on May 29 last. Moreover, it is saddled with a range of onerous measures in its financial dealings with Caribbean countries, which have been advised to safeguard their CFATF-compliant status in their dealings with Guyana.

Among those measures are the following: enhancing due diligence measures in their dealings with Guyana; introducing enhanced reporting mechanisms, or systematic reporting of financial transactions; refusing to establish subsidiaries or branches or representative offices in Guyana; and taking into account the fact that financial institutions from Guyana do not have adequate AML/CFT systems, and thus limit the business relationships or financial transactions with this country.

FATF’s next plenary meeting is slated for the period June 23 to 25, 2014 in Paris, France.

PULL QUOTE: ‘The last opportunity which would have been available for us to send the Bill to CFATF, for them to present to FATF on behalf of Guyana, has been lost’ – AG Nandlall
Written By Vanessa Narine