…insists int’l financial watchdogs pleased with steps to fight money-laundering

By Ariana Gordon

ATTORNEY General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams on Tuesday rubbished claims by the Opposition PPP which claimed that he misled the nation in announcing that Guyana was being removed from the review lists of the international financial watchdog.Williams said that Guyana has satisfied the requirements to be taken off the radar of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and its regional arm, namely, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and that a visit this September will pave the way for the exit process.

“Why would I come here and lie and the international community is watching things all the time?” Williams asked. “FATF has commended Guyana for the fact that within six months we passed four pieces of legislation and the progress we have made within a year,” the Attorney General stated, dismissing claims by the Opposition’s spokesperson on legal affairs, Anil Nandlall, that the public statement issued by FATF does not state that Guyana is cleared to exit the FATF and CFATF regimes.
CFATF, at its plenary meeting held in June, 2016, on improving Global Anti-Money Laundering/ Countering Financing Terrorism Compliance recognised that since the last high-level political commitment made by Guyana in October, 2014, to work with the FATF and CFATF to address strategic deficiencies to prevent money-laundering and the financing of terrorism, “Guyana has substantially addressed its action plan at a technical level.”
According to the report from the plenary, Guyana has adequately criminalised money-laundering and terrorist-financing, and has also established and implemented adequate procedures for the confiscation of assets related to money-laundering. Further, it noted that Guyana has established and implemented an adequate legal framework for identifying, tracing and freezing terrorist assets.
In addition, it was noted that Guyana has established a fully operational and effectively functioning Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and has put in place effective measures for customer due diligence and enhancing financial transparency. The plenary also noted that Guyana has beefed up requirements for the reporting by banks of suspicious transactions and an adequate supervisory framework has been established.
“After every meeting, FATF issues a Public Statement summarising the important decisions it has made in respect of each country that is under its review process. I have carefully examined FATF’s Public Statement in respect of Guyana.
“Nowhere in that statement is it posited, either expressly or by implication, that Guyana was “cleared to exit FATF and CFATF regimes.” In fact, nothing contained in that statement lends itself to such an interpretation,” said Nandlall in a Facebook post last Saturday.
However, the Attorney General made it clear that the APNU+AFC administration has taken action to correct deficiencies not addressed by the PPP at the time it lost executive power in May, 2015.
“CFATF says we have satisfied everything and we have to satisfy the criteria to apply to exit CFATF, but we can’t do so because the PPP administration was referred to FATF.
“FATF has said that we have satisfied all the technical things. We have cleared all the recommendations, so the next stage is the stage to exit and they gave us clearance to start that stage by the on-site visit. If we did not remedy the deficiencies in the action plan, we couldn’t reach the stage where they [are] recommending an on-site visit.”
The Attorney General quipped that had Nandlall been paying attention, he would have known what the process to exit the regimes entails.
“You have to start the process of exiting,” said Williams, who added that the first attempt by Guyana at a follow-up report was successful. This was the 10th follow-up report, the Attorney General said, noting that the former administration had failed to follow up on the previous reports.
Being successful at the10th follow-up report, the Attorney General said Guyana has satisfied the criteria to exit FATF.
“The Americas Region Review Group (AARG) and International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) have confirmed that we have satisfied all the recommendations at the technical level, then we went to the plenary and they recommended an on-site visit to begin the exit process.”
But Nandlall said that by virtue of the AML/CFT (Amendment) Act 2015, Act No.1 of 2015 removing the existing Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and installing the AML-CFT Authority – a 20-member body, 10 of whom are yet to be appointed by the National Assembly following a recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments – Guyana cannot be seen as clear to exit two regimes.
“…there is no AMLCFT Authority in place, there is no Management Committee of the Financial Intelligence Unit in place, and there is no Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in place. These bodies exist on paper only. I am, therefore, amazed that the FATF has been led to believe that Guyana has a ‘fully operational and effectively functioning Financial Intelligence Unit.’ Who is responsible for such misinformation? This can cause immeasurable international damage to Guyana,” Nandlall stated.
In response, Williams said the AML/CFT Bill that saw its first reading despite challenges from the PPP in June, 2015, was before the Special Select Committee along with one from the Opposition. The difference in the Bills he saw is that the APNU+AFC government found that the arrangement or government structure of the FIU was weak and not transparent. As such, the Bill was amended and taken to the Special Select Committee and new structures inserted.
“They were contending that CFATF said having an authority was not in keeping with their recommendations …At all material times, FATF would have been dealing with the structure that operated in 2010 which we inherited. FATF would not have evaluated Guyana on the authority and that structure that we now have proposed to strengthen the FIU. At that time, CFATF and FATF did not find anything wrong with the structure,” the Attorney General stated.
Williams stressed that when FATF comes to Guyana it is to examine that which has been implemented and is being sustained. “FATF is not coming to Guyana to see if we have an authority, to see whether there is a deputy director and accountant. Setting up the authority is not in the action plan… that is icing on the cake.”
The Attorney General said “FATF is not coming for [any] ‘big, deep investigation;’ they are coming to see if what we put in the legislation we have in place and that [the] FIU is functioning.”