Anti Money Laundering Legislation…Guyana faces certain blacklisting as opposition rejects Bill

Nov 08, 2013 News

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Guyana faces certain blacklisting by the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce (CFATF) when it comes up for review in two weeks’ time, given that the amendments to the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill were rejected by the political opposition last evening in Parliament.
The report of the Special Select Committee that was tasked with consideration of the amendments was presented to the House by the Government’s Chief Whip and Chairperson of the Committee, Gail Teixeira.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall presented the Bill to the House for a third reading, at which point in time the House descended into trading of barbs, on and off the floor, with each side blaming each other.
Government speakers contended that the Opposition had delayed and dragged its feet during the six months the Committee met.
Teixeira told the House that over the course of time, the Committee met on 17 occasions, most of which the opposition were poorly represented or absent altogether.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s point man on finances, Carl Greenidge, informed the House that the Government had reneged on agreements in the Committee, and as such, the coalition wanted the Bill recommitted.
Government in turn said that the Opposition had dithered for six months and any recommitting to Committee would have to be time bound, so that the Bill can return to the House and be enacted before the November 18 review.
When the Opposition refused to give a commitment on a timeline, Nandlall was forced to put the Bill to a vote, and it was promptly greeted with a resounding “no.” This led to a division of the votes which resulted in a 33/28 outcome.
Prior to the vote, in response to arguments that Government had nothing to do with the amendments and that they came from CFATF, Greenidge said that the international body was not familiar with the local environment.
“It’s not the tablet that Moses received on the mountain,” said Greenidge, in relation to the fact that CFATF was an international organization.
“We are duty bound to pursue improvements using local knowledge,” Greenidge said.

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, who responded to Greenidge, stated that there was never any great division in the Committee over the actual amendments.
In fact, he said, where the divisions did come about was when it came to setting a date and time for the next meeting of the committee.
“Their tactic was to delay and foot drag…this recommitting to select committee is nothing but the latest ploy by APNU and AFC to drag their feet.”
Dr. Singh said that the move by the opposition represents economic sabotage and that their intent was unmasked when callous disregard was paid to the petition by the Private Sector Commission which was rejected earlier in the day.
He said that the true intention of the opposition, with its economic sabotage, was to have Guyana suffer the consequences.
According to Dr Singh, Guyana faces certain hardships with the rejection of the Bill, given that CFATF has already said that it “will” tell its members to activate counter measures if the deficiency in the law was not addressed.
“We don’t enjoy the luxury of being dismissive of the CFATF,” Dr Singh appealed, to no avail.
Basil Williams in his pitch to justify having the Bill return to the select committee spoke to the fact that the Opposition wanted to also address the Principal Act and not just the amendments recommended by CFATF.
He said that APNU wanted to address the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) as well.
Williams argued that the FIU was a ‘one-man show’ that was going to be tasked with additional burdens, and as such, they wanted to address this too. He said that many of the submissions made by stakeholders, including the Director of Public Prosecutions, dealt with the Principal Act and not just the amendments submitted by CFATF.
Alliance for Change (AFC) Leader Khemraj Ramjattan sought to make a presentation to debate, but was bombarded with heckling. He said that the opposition’s position on supporting the Bill is public knowledge and that refusing to go back to select committee could only mean that the Bill would have to be voted down.
“You do um nah,” was the utterance by one government Member of Parliament to which Ramjattan responded, “let’s do um,” in reference to voting down the Bill.
Following the vote, Government held a hastily put together press briefing, where Dr Singh, Junior Finance Minister Bishop Juan Edghill and Attorney General Anil Nandlall bemoaned the consequences of the move by the opposition.

 

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