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Guyana’s commitment and obligation to its treaty partners have been hijacked by the political Opposition and political misadventure is afoot.
This is the position of Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon, who, in his weekly engagement with media operatives yesterday, railed the Opposition stance on the amendments to Guyana’s Anti-Money laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Law. Dr Luncheon denied the assertion by the Opposition that government had dragged its feet on presenting the amendments to the National Assembly for consideration.
The Head of the Presidential Secretariat told media operatives that the amendments arose from a process that started with the evaluation of the legislation in 2010.
According to Dr Luncheon, “when the original Anti-Money Laundering Act was put in place, like all other state parties, Guyana was evaluated and Guyana continues to be evaluated.”
He said that the 2010 evaluation unveiled weaknesses “that arose from the progress in time from our enactment of the original legislation and more modern practices.”
Dr Luncheon explained that the maturation of money laundering features had to be incorporated “into our legislation…This is understandable.”
The reform, he said, has been a feature of almost every state party that has been a part of the financial action task force.
“We also had to deal with weaknesses in our application of what we committed to in the Act.”
He said that fingers were being pointed at failure of prosecutions, about inadequate investigations and remedies that had been utilised in other jurisdictions successfully and were proposed during the multilateral evaluations of Guyana.
The amendments, he emphasized, arose from a process even as he sought to remind that what Guyana is seeking to do is amend the existing law as against presenting a new one.
“This is an amendment bill that deals with those two features: the development in anti-money laundering practices since the original bill was enacted and the development during the evaluation, the discovery of areas of weaknesses that Guyana had to correct.”
He said it isn’t a question that Guyana had endless time to make the corrections, “that indeed the multilateral evaluations, the identification of the specific interventions had to be made.”
“There was a process ongoing and all things left to itself, this event ought to have been concluded to the nation’s satisfaction, to our treaty partners, it ought to have been completed…It has now been high-jacked.”
He questioned “how on earth” could the Opposition be dismissive of the amendments, and reminded of the “the importance of complying with our international obligations.”
According to Dr Luncheon, the perils of failing to comply with the international obligations through the amendments “were made known and are known to the parliamentary opposition…this is an extremely reprehensible step by the political opposition.”
Irfaan Ali, who holds Ministerial portfolio for Commerce in Guyana, on Thursday last had sought to elucidate the perils of enacting the amendments to the money laundering laws.
He said that “failing to pass these amendments will affect Guyana’s competitiveness and prevent us from improving our position on the World Bank’s Doing Business Index.”
The international sanctions, if applied to Guyana, according to Ali, threatens“to wreck not just the offshore sector, but also every other internationally-connected sector as well, from tourism to remittances from citizens working abroad.”
This is the position of Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon, who, in his weekly engagement with media operatives yesterday, railed the Opposition stance on the amendments to Guyana’s Anti-Money laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Law. Dr Luncheon denied the assertion by the Opposition that government had dragged its feet on presenting the amendments to the National Assembly for consideration.
The Head of the Presidential Secretariat told media operatives that the amendments arose from a process that started with the evaluation of the legislation in 2010.
According to Dr Luncheon, “when the original Anti-Money Laundering Act was put in place, like all other state parties, Guyana was evaluated and Guyana continues to be evaluated.”
He said that the 2010 evaluation unveiled weaknesses “that arose from the progress in time from our enactment of the original legislation and more modern practices.”
Dr Luncheon explained that the maturation of money laundering features had to be incorporated “into our legislation…This is understandable.”
The reform, he said, has been a feature of almost every state party that has been a part of the financial action task force.
“We also had to deal with weaknesses in our application of what we committed to in the Act.”
He said that fingers were being pointed at failure of prosecutions, about inadequate investigations and remedies that had been utilised in other jurisdictions successfully and were proposed during the multilateral evaluations of Guyana.
The amendments, he emphasized, arose from a process even as he sought to remind that what Guyana is seeking to do is amend the existing law as against presenting a new one.
“This is an amendment bill that deals with those two features: the development in anti-money laundering practices since the original bill was enacted and the development during the evaluation, the discovery of areas of weaknesses that Guyana had to correct.”
He said it isn’t a question that Guyana had endless time to make the corrections, “that indeed the multilateral evaluations, the identification of the specific interventions had to be made.”
“There was a process ongoing and all things left to itself, this event ought to have been concluded to the nation’s satisfaction, to our treaty partners, it ought to have been completed…It has now been high-jacked.”
He questioned “how on earth” could the Opposition be dismissive of the amendments, and reminded of the “the importance of complying with our international obligations.”
According to Dr Luncheon, the perils of failing to comply with the international obligations through the amendments “were made known and are known to the parliamentary opposition…this is an extremely reprehensible step by the political opposition.”
Irfaan Ali, who holds Ministerial portfolio for Commerce in Guyana, on Thursday last had sought to elucidate the perils of enacting the amendments to the money laundering laws.
He said that “failing to pass these amendments will affect Guyana’s competitiveness and prevent us from improving our position on the World Bank’s Doing Business Index.”
The international sanctions, if applied to Guyana, according to Ali, threatens“to wreck not just the offshore sector, but also every other internationally-connected sector as well, from tourism to remittances from citizens working abroad.”
