THE recent incident involving the detention of a Guyanese pilot in Puerto Rico for not declaring more than US$600,000 has once again underlined the urgency for Guyana to pass and enact its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) bill.

This was the fervent view of Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon as he responded to questions about the incident during his regular post-Cabinet media briefing, yesterday.
“…these issues point out the need for us to get on with the job of getting CFATF complaint money laundering legislation in Guyana,” Dr. Luncheon told reporters.
The Cabinet Secretary said the issue also begs the question whether those who, for whatever reasons are opposing the bill, appear intransigent in the pursuit of CFATF complaint legislation whether by accident, misadventure or purposeful; they may be in cahoots or may be complicit with the pilot or other persons in the money laundering trade.
“The bigger picture we must not lose sight of is a legislative environment and its firm implementation. Money laundering will become less and less of a scourge in this environment. This is what the Government wants and all stakeholders, and of course these are our treaty obligations we are honoured to meet,” he posited.
Meanwhile, court documents show that Khamraj Lall was the co-pilot on a flight to Guyana when agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations searched the aircraft when it stopped to refuel.
Lall is being held on suspicion of intent to evade currency reporting. More than a year now, the administration has been seeking to pass the AML/CFT bill in the National Assembly with the aim of making Guyana compliant with international financial laws.
However, this move has been frustrated at every level by the non-support of the combined Opposition, despite calls by all stakeholders.
Only recently President Donald Ramotar had written a letter to President of the Financial Action Task Force, Mr. Roger Wilkins, signalling Government’s commitment to making Guyana FATF compliant.
This move, combined with other efforts at several review meetings, has saved Guyana from being blacklisted.

(GINA)