Data collection key for Guyana in 4th round evaluation-CFATF
CFATF Executive Director Calvin Wilson
CFATF Executive Director Calvin Wilson

THE significant progress made in addressing the deficiencies in Guyana’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime continues to be acknowledged but the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) said the country must now place emphasis on data collection ahead of the 4TH Round of Mutual Evaluation in 2022.

Head of Jamaica’s delegation, Robin Sykes, speaking to the Guyana Chronicle and DPI on the sidelines of the XLVI Plenary and Working Group Meeting at the Guyana Marriott

“The important starting point is the fact that Guyana in a very short space of time passed a suite of legislation which resulted in them being taken off the FATF list and also being reviewed by the CFATF, and that was a commendable achievement for the Government and people of Guyana, led by your Attorney General, who is the Deputy Chair of the CFATF–the honourable Basil Williams,” CFATF Executive Director, Calvin Wilson, told Guyana Chronicle.
In May 2014, CFATF had handed over Guyana to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) due to the country’s failure at the time to meet the agreed timelines in its Action Plan.

However, starting from 2015, the country was able to make significant progress, resulting in it being removed from FATF’s watch list in October 2016. Currently, Guyana has an Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act in place, along with other related legislation governing supervisory bodies, financial institutions, law enforcement, and foreign affairs.

In speaking to this newspaper on the sidelines of the XLVI Plenary and Working Group Meetings at the Guyana Marriott where over 200 delegates are in attendance, Wilson said the country should swiftly move into action, explaining that during the 4TH Round of Mutual Evaluation, the country’s effectiveness in addressing the deficiencies will be tested. The 3RD Round of Mutual Evaluation deals with the legal and regulatory framework of a country with respect to its AML/CFT regime.

Ahead of the country’s assessment in 2022 for the 4th Round of Mutual Evaluation, the CFATF Executive Director said the country should swiftly put the requisite systems in place to ensure that its effectiveness is documented. Already, Guyana, under the stewardship of its Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, has conducted a National Risk Assessment (NRA) from which the highest risks were identified.

“If there is more work to be done in terms of coming into compliance legislatively with the 40 recommendations, you make those changes now, you collate the data because you know the fourth round is based on effectiveness, and so there is need for data to underpin what the country says in terms of how effective their regime is functioning,” Wilson said.
However, he took note of the fact that the collection of data within the region remains a challenge.

“We found that the data-capturing mechanisms not only in the region but around the world and in other big countries there are challenges there, so Guyana needs to pay particular attention to their data-capturing mechanisms and also educating all stakeholders, right across the board both private and public, in terms of the requirement of the 40 recommendations,” he further added.

The CFATF Executive Director said based on the commitment demonstrated by the Attorney General, the country could rest assured that it will receive high ratings during the assessment of the 4th Round of Mutual Evaluation.
“I know that he is taking lots of steps internationally to educate all stakeholders and that is admirable, and that the advice from the CFATF would be for that to continue,” the CFATF Executive Director said.

Weighing in on the issue, Head of Jamaica’s Delegation for the CFATF Plenary, Robin Sykes, said the countries in the 4TH Round of Mutual Evaluation face an “interesting dilemma” because it focuses on effectiveness.
“So it goes a bit more than the passage of laws that has been a challenge because of capacity issues with a number of jurisdictions,” Sykes posited while pointing out that the regime for CFATF is broad based.

“It also involves a lot of players outside of the normal law enforcement regime, so we are talking about people like non-profit organizations, lawyers, accountants, all of these persons that have a role to play in anti-money laundering. So it is quite an effort to bring all of these new partners on board, and that is something that a lot of dialogue has to take place within a jurisdiction to have people committed to the fight against money laundering,” he posited

He said though Jamaica has completed its evaluation, it has quite a lot more work to do, like many other jurisdictions. Citing Jamaica as an example, he said the island was faced with resistance from its lawyers who were opting not to be covered under the AML/CFT obligations until the court ruled in favour of the Government.

“The point is that jurisdictions have to fight on a number of fronts to get this message across and in an environment such as Jamaica that does have a significant crime problem, it has often had to bring across the importance of (fighting) financial crime and money laundering… The reality is a lot of crime is generated by profit and therefore if you can reduce profit motive out of crime that should be a significant deterrent and the overall levels of crime,” he posited.

CFATF Executive Director and the Head of the Jamaican Delegation are currently in Guyana with more than 200 delegates from 26 member countries participating in CFATF XLVI Plenary and Working Group Meetings. Though the meetings commenced on Sunday, they were officially opened yesterday (Wednesday) November 15 by President David Granger and the Attorney General, one day before it is expected to come to an end.

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