ATTORNEY-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams is leading a Guyanese delegation to the XLIX Plenary and Working Group Meetings of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force being held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

The meeting, which opened on Monday, will discuss a range of issues, a release from the Ministry of Legal Affairs said.

In addition to Williams, other members of the Guyana delegation include: Ms Tamika Barkoye of the Ministry of Legal Affairs; Ms Joanne Bond and Mr. Rommel St. Hill of the AG Chambers; Mr Matthew Langevine, Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit; Ms. Alicia Williams also of the FIU; Ms Eondrene Thompson, General Manager of the Guyana Gold Board; Ms Perlina Gifth, of the Ministry of Social Protection; Ms Natasha Backer and Mrs Teshana Lake of the DPP Chambers; Mr Shaun Allicock – Securities; Governor Bank of Guyana, Dr Gobind Ganga; Mrs Kara Duff-Yehudah of the GGMC; and Mr Lloyd Moore of the Gaming Authority.

According to the release, Guyana recently hosted two Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) training and sensitisation workshops for attorneys-at-law and accountants/auditors. Those workshops were organised by Mr Williams, who is the prime contact for Guyana’s AML/CFT regime, and the Chairperson of the AML/CFT and Proliferation Financing National Co-ordination Committee.

The workshops, which were held at the Cara Lodge Hotel, were seen as critical as Guyana prepares for its CFATF Fourth Round Mutual Evaluation, scheduled for the first quarter of 2022, and more so, given that the Money Laundering (ML) vulnerability levels for attorneys-at-law and accountants/auditors are generally considered to be high, based on AML/CFT trends globally, the release stated. The completion of Guyana’s first Money laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) National Risk Assessment in 2016 concluded that the ML vulnerabilities and risk with these sectors in Guyana are consistent with international norms. The workshops also highlighted that the obligations of attorneys-at-law and accountants/auditors be classified as Designated Non-Financial Businesses or Professions (DNFBPs) under local AML/CFT legislation.

With Guyana being on the cusp of an economic transformation with the development of the Oil and Gas Industry, Williams has insisted that it is important to make the country a safe and secure place that attracts investors.