GOVERNOR of the Central Bank, Dr Gobin Ganga, is warning that come September, when Guyana comes up for another review in relation to its compliance on its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) laws, better results are of utmost importance.The head of Guyana’s premier financial institution made the declaration during an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle Monday.

According to Dr Ganga, if there are issues arising with respect to not achieving a satisfactory level of compliance by the September deadline, then Guyana will face adverse sanctions.
Guyana has been subjected to a number of reviews by the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce (CFATF) and the International Financial Action Taskforce (FATF).
Having failed repeatedly to meet its requirements, CFATF has already warned its member countries to put measures in place when doing business with Guyana, in order to protect their own financial systems.

SERIOUS DEADLINE
According to the Central Bank Governor, the September deadline is critical, “this is a serious deadline…this is the deadline.”

While Guyana has successfully complied with a number of the non-legislative requirements mandated by CFATF, a gridlocked 10th Parliament has led to the nation failing to pass its amendments to the AML/CFT legislation, much to the chagrin of the international community.

At FATF’s last meeting, Guyana was mandated to undertake a number of steps to address the shortcomings in the local AML/CFT framework.
Among these, as outlined in a statement by FATF, are:
* Adequately criminalising money laundering and terrorist financing;
* Establishing and implementing adequate procedures for the confiscation of assets related to money laundering;
* Establishing and implementing an adequate legal framework for identifying, tracing and freezing terrorist assets;
* Establishing a fully operational and effectively functioning Financial Intelligence Unit;
* Establishing effective measures for customer due diligence and enhancing financial transparency; Strengthening suspicious transaction reporting requirements; and
* Implementing an adequate supervisory framework.
According to the international watchdog, “Guyana made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and CFATF to address its strategic AML/CFT deficiencies and Guyana will work on implementing its action plan to address these deficiencies.”
FATF has also stressed that Guyana must act with urgency to address the deficiencies in the local AML/CFT framework. (Gary Eleazar)