— Attorney General informs House

GUYANA has made significant progress in correcting the deficiencies within its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime in keeping with the standards established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), but the country must now be cognisant of the challenges that exist in the Fourth Round of Mutual Evaluations.
“Exiting the FATF ICRG process and both the CFATF follow-up and CFATF ICRG processes all in one year is definitely a great achievement for Guyana,” Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams said, as he updated the National Assembly on “Guyana’s progress under the 3rd Mutual Evaluation.”

Financial institutions in Guyana, the Legal Affairs Minister said, can now conduct their transactions with ease as a result of the milestone achievement. However, he noted that the country has been warned by the regional and international financial watchdogs.
“Guyana was however warned by both the FATF and CFATF to be cognisant of the fact that exiting the third round means that we are now in the 4th Round of Mutual Evaluations with which comes tremendous challenges,” he said.
Under the fourth round, countries are assessed for technical compliance with the FATF-revised 40 recommendations, as well as the level of effectiveness of its AML/CFT system. “This, therefore, means that we still have a lot of work to do,” the Legal Affairs Minister told the House.

Minister Williams recalled that it was in May 2011 that Guyana’s 3rd Round of Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) was adopted by the CFATF Council of Ministers. The report was subsequently published on July 25, 2011.
As a result of the country’s overall level of compliance with the FATF 40+9 recommendations, Guyana was placed in expedited follow-up at the CFATF May 2011 plenary and was required to report under the CFATF follow-up process every plenary. Between May 2011 and November 2016, CFATF published 11 follow-up reports on Guyana.
“Guyana was finally removed from the CFATF follow-up process at the recently concluded CFATF plenary held in the Turks and Caicos Islands from November 2-10, 2016,” Minister Williams said with a sense of accomplishment.

STUMBLING BLOCKS
However, he said before acquiring such an achievement, it was faced with many stumbling blocks which led to it being placed on the CFATF ICRG process during the May 2011 plenary. At the time, the country was rated as partially compliant.
“Due to insufficient progress made by Guyana under the CFATF ICRG process, Guyana was featured on three CFATF Public Statements (May 30, 2013, November 20, 2013 and May 29, 2014) and was subsequently referred to the FATF ICRG in May 2014. In June 2014, the FATF decided to take up Guyana’s deficiency matter,” he recalled.

However, when the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government took office, President David Granger gave a high-level commitment to the President of FATF of Guyana’s intention to apply the FATF’s recommendations. Months after this commitment was made, Guyana just this month was removed from the CFATF ICRG process during the just concluded CFATF plenary in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“It should be noted that following Guyana’s referral to FATF-ICRG in May 2014, Guyana continued to report to the CFATF under the CFATF follow-up process, but had ceased to continue to report to the CFATF ICRG under the ICRG process even though Guyana remained in the ICRG process,” the Legal Affairs Minister explained.
FATF-ICRG had taken up Guyana’s deficiency matter at its June 2014 plenary. Guyana had then agreed to an Action Plan with the FATF-ICRG in August 2014.
Criminalising money laundering and financing of terrorism; confiscation and provisional measures; financial institution secrecy laws; customer due diligence and beneficial ownership; reporting of suspicious transactions; targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing; AML/CFT supervisory regime and Financial Intelligence Unit were the eight areas outlined in the action plan.

At the FATF plenary and Working Group Meetings held in October 2014, the FATF Plenary approved the Action Plan which was agreed between the FATF-ICRG and Guyana and featured Guyana for the first time on the Public Document-Improving Global Compliance: Ongoing process. Guyana remained on the FATF Public Document until June 2016, having been featured on six Public Documents (Oct 2014, Feb 2015, June 2015, Oct 2015, Feb 2016, and June 2016).
Subsequent to the approval of the action plan and an on-site visit, a decision was made in October to have Guyana removed from the FATF Public Document. That moved easily paved the way for the country to exit the CFAT Public Document.