THE Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) has been provided with a headquarters building on Camp Street, adjacent to the Central Immigration Office, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon informed yesterday.

The intended headquarters of SOCU will be located south of the Immigration Office, Luncheon disclosed at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President, in Georgetown.
Furthermore, he informed that Cabinet will consider the estimates that have been submitted for the rehabilitation of the building and for the resourcing of SOCU which entails recruitment of staff and associated expenditure.
“Our hope is that these non-legislative interventions in the regime of anti-money laundering national character would indeed be fast-tracked and support will be provided at all levels in having this most recent initiative completed.”
The formation of a functioning and effective SOCU and its dedication to investigating anti-money laundering crimes will remain on the front burner, Luncheon had said at an earlier press conference.
SOCU’s creation was in response to non-parliamentary recommendations from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).
He said, yesterday, the efforts of the Government and the multitude of responsible stakeholders have not been in vain. “The machinations of the opposition have failed. Presidential Adviser Ms. Gail Teixeira disclosed that after comprehensive consideration by FATF, at its June plenary, Guyana was not considered for further blacklisting.
“Instead, Guyana having being referred to FATF by CFATF would be subjected to a targeted review. The targeted review that was imposed at that plenary would provide four months for further work on achieving FATF compliant legislation and would entail reviews by FATF that would be conducted by the North American Branch of FATF. In essence, until the reporting in October 2014 that would be made at FATF plenary Guyana will have that period to achieve FATF compliant legislation.”
Dr Luncheon said the Government has focused its attention on the enactment of FATF compliant legislation but, also in the context of the review, has also dedicated attention to the non-legislative recommendations that were submitted by CFATF during the third round of the multilateral evaluation mechanism of Guyana.
“Cabinet had favourably pronounced on matters related to that non-legislative recommendation, specifically heightening investigation and prosecution of money laundering offences,” he said.

(Telesha Ramnarine)