LAST Tuesday, the Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, exhorted the commercial banks to adhere to the requirements of the Central Bank in the opening of small accounts by persons who are not high earners. This exhortation was made not by an ordinary person or even a person with a certain amount of state authority. It was authored by one of the most important citizens in Guyana – the Finance Minister – whose portfolio covers the financial houses of Guyana.

I now relate to readers my understanding of how state power is exercised in any country in the world. I have built a home in Turkeyen after moving out of Wortmanville in south Georgetown. One day the contractor called to ask me to come down because a City Council officer had held up construction.

The officer said to me that the building must be ten feet away from the fence. It was not. The contractor had made a mistake. What is the point? Laws, legal requirements and state edicts have to be accepted and citizens are compelled to observe them because of oversight by state authorities.

The Bank of Guyana’s (BoG) regulations, if there are such regulations, must be adhered to by commercial banks. Anyone who lives in Guyana and had to make an arrangement with any, and I mean any commercial bank, would tell you, these banks are a law unto themselves. The Central Bank has to exercise oversight and I am afraid after more than ten years of complaining to the Governor, Dr. Gobin Ganga, I don’t see that oversight.

Dr. Ganga will admit that I have complained to him over a period of 10 years about the unmitigated unreasonableness of commercial banks. I have email exchanges with him that I have kept since then. Dr. Ganga is someone I know at a personal level but he knows about how I feel about the mistreatment of working-class people by the banks and the silence of BoG.

Let us quote the Finance Minister. I remind you that this is one of the most powerful state official speaking. “It would appear to me that this simplified guideline is not well-known… Guyanese should not experience long waiting times to open accounts in Guyana in contrast to other countries because they are all working with the same Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financing Terrorism (AMLCFT) regime.”

This is one of the current mysteries in Guyana that all Guyanese, even those without hurtful experience in dealing with the banks, know about. All countries have to subscribe to the international anti-money laundering law. Then, why does it take “a million years” to open an account and why you have to produce “a million documents” and answer “a million questions” only in Guyana?

A Trinidadian man created a hullaballoo in one of the banks. He kept shouting at the attendants that Trinidad was the first CARICOM country to implement the money-laundering law yet Trinidadians do not face the hassles that Guyanese have to face. He was mad and had to be calmed down. I witnessed that outburst.

Let’s quote the Finance Minister again: “Sometimes those simplified guidelines do not always “trickle down” to the staff at the banks’ counters.” So where does that leave the required training of staff? It means the banks are either incompetent, do not care, or do not do staff training.” Staff training is commonsense in the world today.

All big institutions carry out frequent staff training. I was in a popular fast-food restaurant, and I had to wait because the training session went over the stipulated time. I was in one of the famous supermarkets and I asked to speak to the supervisor. They told me he is in a training session. So, the banks do not train their staff? The attendants have to be acquainted with the banks’ regulations. How else can they serve the public?

Here is a graphic example where staff are trained to understand what they must do. No policeman would arrest a tenant if the landlord goes to the station and complains about rent owing. The policeman at the desk would immediately tell him that the police cannot arrest the tenant and that he must sue the tenant. The officer at the desk knows that such a complaint is not within the police’s jurisdiction.

If the bank attendant does not know the regulations, then the bank has to hold training sessions.
The final quote above from the Finance Minister should open our eyes as to how the banks operate in this country.

The ignorance on the part of the banks of what the stipulations of the money-laundering law are is creating nightmares for working-class Guyanese. This cruelty has to come to an end.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.