…to assist small states overcome challenges of fourth round evaluations

ATTORNEY General and Chairman of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), Basil Williams, said the fourth round of Mutual Evaluations continue to present a number of challenges for small member states.

Williams, who is also the Minister of Legal Affairs in Guyana, took stock of the situation when he delivered remarks at the opening ceremony of CFATF Plenary Meeting XLVII in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday, May 30, 2018. Small member states are presently dealing with economies affected by low levels of financial growth, recovery from hurricanes and de-risking, the CFATF Chairman explained.

“Resources are being stretched as we all use our best efforts to legislatively strengthen our Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks, establish measures to deal with Proliferation Financing (PF) and implement the AML/CFT laws and processes to a level that can be considered as ‘high’ or ‘substantial’ levels of effectiveness,” he said.

Given the challenges faced, Williams said he looks forward to the start of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF), which will assist some members with their fourth round of Mutual Evaluation implementation requirements. The 11th EDF aside, the CFATF Chairman said he is confident that member states will continue to improve their levels of compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards, and thereby increase their levels of effectiveness with respect to implementation.

Under his chairmanship, Williams has been pushing training. Last month, an AML/CFT/CVE training programme for judges and prosecutors was conducted in Georgetown, Guyana. The CFATF Chairman used the opportunity to express thanks to Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, the Right Honourable Baroness Patricia Scotland for supporting the initiative with funding from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Guyana. CFATF’s Secretariat and the facilitators who were drawn from the United Kingdom, Jamaica and the Regional Security System (RSS) Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) were also recognised for their inputs in making the seminar a success.

“While the workshop was not a joint undertaking with the FATF due to the scheduled dates of the event, I am pleased to state that we were able to provide the FATF with a report on the outcomes of our workshop, which could be used as part of the overall report on the experiences, challenges and good practices regarding Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) investigations, prosecutions and confiscations,” Williams noted.
CFATF Secretariat, he further posited, has received positive feedbacks from participants who benefitted significantly from the technical training pertaining to ML, TF and criminal and civil confiscation.

“The workshop is also likely to have been the only one in the global network that presented the issue of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) and its relationship to terrorism and terrorism financing,” he posited.

In January, also in Georgetown, Guyana, an assessors training programme was conducted. Come July, in Trinidad, a joint assessors training for members will be held with the FATF. Williams said under his tenure, once funding permits, he will ensure that there are other opportunities for training that will enable member states as a region to increase application of the laws to allow for better results during process of mutual evaluation.

“In executing our primary mandate, our mutual evaluation programme, which includes the mutual evaluation, follow-up and for our members thus far, the FATF ICRG process, it is necessary that we collaborate with the Secretariat and each other. Our workload is becoming more grueling in the face of limited resources,” the CFATF Chair said as he urged member states to be confident, creative and active participants in the work of CFATF. The Attorney General and a 15 member delegation represented Guyana at the CFATF XLVII Working Groups and Plenary Meetings in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago from May 27-31, 2018.

The Guyanese delegation is made up of officials from agencies including the Attorney General Chambers, Bank of Guyana (BOG), Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU); DPP Chambers, Gaming Authority; Guyana Gold Board (GGB); Guyana Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC) and Chief Cooperatives Development Officer (CCDO).