APNU, AFC now pretending to ride in like knights in shining armour
– to save Guyana from the very disaster which they put country in

THE main Opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), yesterday took a position similar to the one expressed by the Alliance For Change (AFC) on Thursday:- that the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Amendment Bill can be passed in a matter of hours.

Opposition Leader David Granger told the media at a press conference yesterday that the Bill can be passed in 48 hours. Granger is adamant that in order to get Opposition’s support, the Government must accede to the Opposition’s several demands!
The Alliance For Change (AFC) party on the other hand, said 72 hours is enough for the Bill’s passage, but restated that the Public Procurement Commission must be established.

Commenting on the positions of the two parties, Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall said: “I am happy that the parties have finally arrived at this position; but, as they did with the Amaila Falls, they waited until the hammer has fallen on Guyana and then they are now pretending to ride in like the knight in shining armour to save the country from the very disaster which they have put us in.

“In any event, I am not impressed by anything the AFC or the APNU says in terms of political commitment. My personal experience has been that the combined Opposition has violated and disregarded every political accord they have struck with the Government since November 2011.

“I am therefore not impressed with this newfound political magnanimity on the part of the AFC,” AG Nandlall said.

OPPOSITION’S DUPLICITY EXPOSED

Ms Gail Teixeira, Chair of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee, where the Bill has been languishing for more than 12 months now, also questioned the genuineness of the combined Opposition’s assertions, given that the Committee’s meetings were delayed because of their unavailability to meet.

Prior to meeting on May 22, the Committee had not met since April 30, because of the unavailability of members from APNU; and Ms Teixeira has said that with the significant lapse of time, the positions expressed by the combined Opposition should have been their position before the situation had reached the point where Guyana had to miss the May 26 deadline and had to be referred to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).

“If this was their view, then why didn’t we meet?” she asked.

DIFFERENCE IN POSITION

Both parliamentary Opposition parties now contend that the AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill can be passed in a matter of hours, with the AFC having relaxed the conditionality it had doggedly held on to previously — that its support for the enactment of the critically important legislation was premised on establishment of the PPC, which the Government had agreed to, provided that Subsection 54 was amended to maintain Cabinet’s no-objection role.

For more than 12 months, this latter conditionality required by Government had been rejected by the AFC.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the AFC said it was willing to compromise by amending Section 54 of the Procurement Act, so that Cabinet’s right to raise an objection on the award of contracts is enshrined.

The Procurement (Amendment) Bill 2013 was read for the first time in the National Assembly last November. It aims to amend the 2003 principal Procurement Act by deleting Subsection Six of Section 54, effectively restoring Cabinet’s no-objection role.

If the PPC had been established without the Procurement (Amendment) Bill 2013, Cabinet’s no-objection role would no longer have been effective.

Government’s position is that if Cabinet is clothed with the responsibility to be accountable to the National Assembly for public spending, and if Cabinet is generally held accountable for national spending, then Cabinet must have a role in the procurement process.

The AFC had also endorsed positions adopted by the APNU; however, is it not clear if that endorsement still stands.

Attempts by the Chronicle to contact AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan for comment proved futile.

WILL NOT BUDGE

The political coalition APNU, on the other hand, maintains the position it had adopted. At a press conference held yesterday, APNU leader Mr David Granger said the AML/CFT Amendment Bill will not be passed unconditionally, as was called for by President Donald Ramotar on Thursday.

Guyana has effectively been blacklisted internationally following the country’s referral on Thursday to FATF. CFATF’s decision follows a review on Monday of Guyana’s progress with a local team headed by AG Nandlall. The review was in relation to the protection of the international financial system from money laundering and financing of terrorism risks, and the encouragement of greater compliance with standards.

(By Vanessa Narine)