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Blame game continues over the Anti Money Laundering legislation
There has been for quite some time now, an incessant back and forth between the political Opposition and the ruling administration over who is to be blamed for the non passage of the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) legislation which has left Guyana blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFAFT).
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee
General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Clement Rohee, commenting on the “blame game” being hurled back and forth between the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Alliance For Change, (AFC) and the PPP/C said that both negatives and positives can be derived since it brings out the “polemics” of the arguments of those “casting blame on one side or the other.”
More importantly, Rohee stressed that “the body that pronounces on these matters in Paris later on in March this year will bring an end to this blame game because then the chickens will come home to roost and then we will actually know the price that the country …the nation and the people of Guyana will have to pay as a result of the Opposition’s filibustering.”
Rohee made mention of the Opposition walking out of the Parliamentary Select Committee (the body that was agreed upon by both parties to articulate their concerns over the AML legislation before it’s laid in the National Assembly) because of what he (Rohee) opined is “some rather frivolous arguments about media presence and private sector presence while the meetings are going on.”
The General Secretary expressed that “you can’t blow hot and cold on transparency issues.” He added that he sees nothing wrong is making available what transpires at the Select Committee of Parliament unless it is a “secret meeting” determined by the members themselves.
“The private sector community has a role to play in all of these things, so you know as I said if you are committed to transparency, you have to do transparency; not only talk transparency” said Rohee.
He explained that the perception is that a joke is being made out of the blacklisting issue and that “we are not serious that it’s happening.” He however stressed that it is serious business and only when “we begin to see certain visible signs then we will begin to believe.”
Rohee related that based on the signs that he is receiving from the Opposition, there isn’t much optimism of the Bill being passed in time for the plenary meeting which he said will be held soon to see if Guyana has complied with CFATF regulations. “We have to keep our eyes on the Opposition ball. I think the government has been much more than consistent on these matters.”
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