GUYANA will soon have an opportunity to be removed from the list of countries with deficiencies in its Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) framework.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, will be attending the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) conference in Paris.
“So we hope now that in Paris that report will be conveyed to the ICRG (International Cooperation Review Group )meeting and plenary and [we] have an opportunity to be removed from the list,” Williams told members of the media on Friday at his office on Carmichael Street, Georgetown.
Last month, President David Granger met with the FATF/ICRG officials who were in Guyana to conduct a site visit to assess the progress made by the country to bring it into compliance with the requirements of the FATF and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).
Williams noted on Friday that the team subsequently indicated to the authorities that Guyana had successfully implemented all the recommendations the body had made regarding strengthening of the country’s AML/CTF framework.
The visiting delegation last month included CFATF’s Financial Adviser Roger Hernandez, CFATF’s Executive Director Calvin Wilson, Americas Regional Review Group (ARRG) Assessor Gonzalo Gonzalez de Lara and FATF’s Senior Policy Analyst Kevin Vandergrift.
Last month, Assessor from the ARRG, Gonzalez de Lara, said that the team is pleased with the Guyana Government’s efforts and the work being done by the various law-enforcement agencies. He also said that the FATF/CFATF recognises that all of these changes have been achieved in a relatively brief period of time.
President David Granger reiterated his Government’s commitment to compliance and its importance to Guyana’s security. “We welcome your coming here and the work you are here to do and we look forward to favourable outcomes… We are committed to ensuring that there is full compliance in every respect,” President Granger said.
He reminded the team that as a small country with porous borders, Guyana is vulnerable to transnational crimes such as human trafficking and contraband smuggling and as such, the country has been doing its best to tackle these problems within the limit of its resources.
Williams noted last month , that while there is still some resistance to the new measures, the Government has been doing a lot of work to ensure that the population gets a better understanding of the importance of fighting money laundering and the financing of terrorism.