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Anti Money Laundering Bill…Select Committee complete APNU’s amendments
…vote possible before CFATF review–Harmon
The Special Parliament Select Committee tasked with addressing the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill has completed addressing the amendments brought about by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and supported by the Alliance for Change (AFC) and it is now up to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel to ‘tidy up’ the draft.
This is according to APNU’s Joseph Harmon, who yesterday said that the next step is to deal with the counter amendments submitted by Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.
OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza
Harmon said that he did not expect this to be too much of a tedious or prolonged phase given that a number of counter amendments submitted by Nandlall coincide with those of APNU.
According to the APNU Member of Parliament, it is very likely that the work of the committee can be wrapped up before the review of Guyana by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF), come May 29.
He did caution that while there would be a favourable vote at the level of the Special Select Committee, when it comes to a vote in the Full House of the National Assembly that would be a different matter.
Harmon reminded that APNU will stand its grounds as it relates to its demands in order to secure passage of the Bill.
These include President Donald Ramotar assenting to a number of Bills that had been debated and passed in the House by the political opposition as well as the issuance of a commencement order for Local Government Elections, among other demands.
The AFC has also demanded that the Public Procurement Commission be established before Government can receive its support for the Bill in the National Assembly.
Meanwhile the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, on Friday last issued another call for the Parliament of Guyana to approve the AML/CFT Bill, which has been under consideration by the Legislature for several months.
Insulza stated that passage of the Act is crucial to bring the country up to standard on these matters. He noted that several of Guyana’s CARICOM partners have already adopted similar legislation in compliance with the requirements of CFATF.
Further delays, according to the highest ranking official of the OAS, could result in unnecessary damage to the country’s financial stature.
The Secretary General therefore appealed again to all political parties and other stakeholders in Guyana to exercise leadership and understanding in seeking prompt passage of the Bill.
APNU’s Joseph Harmon
Secretary General Insulza offered the cooperation and support of the OAS through the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), noting that Guyana’s draft law is fully consistent with the most recent recommendations of CICAD’s expert group on money laundering, which were in turn endorsed by CICAD commissioners at their 55th Regular Session in Washington DC this past week.
This past week, too, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, also lamented the delay in the passage of the Bill.
During his weekly post Cabinet press briefing, Dr Luncheon told media operatives that the stall in the passage of the Bill had more to do with politicking than legal technicalities.
He reminded that the plenary meeting of CFTAF might see Guyana without an enacted Bill.
Guyana was last year blacklisted by CFATF but without the legislation being enacted after that blacklisting the country is now heading in the direction of international blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which is the head body in France.
This tier of blacklisting, according to Attorney General Anil Nandlall, will see the Guyanese economy “estranged and alienated financially and economically from 190 countries in the world…The International Financial Institutions that will cease funding to Guyana.”
Dr. Luncheon, at his post Cabinet press briefing, said that while throughout the region Government’s are usually the errant body that would eventually always subscribe to the CFATF and FATF guidelines, in Guyana’s case it is different.
“The government of Guyana is not the obstacle to Guyana subscribing to CFATF and FATF guidelines …It is the opposition the Parliamentary–APNU and (AFC — that remains the sole obstacle to Guyana subscribing to CFTAF and FATF guidelines.”
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