Latest update April 7th, 2025 12:08 AM
AML/CFT… Spare us the harsher penalties – GSMA urges
President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association, Clinton Williams, has joined the long list of persons who are urging the speedy passing of the Anti Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) and the implementation of all the outstanding requirements outlined in its Action.
Clinton Williams
In a statement issued recently, Williams said that it is now more apparent that our parliamentary parties are continuing to dither in the Select Committee over refining the AML/CFT legislation.
According to Williams, Guyana has already been blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) “but Guyanese from every walk of life could be spared the harsher effects of ultimate blacklisting if only our parliamentarians would work with more alacrity to pass the amended Bill.”
The amendments to the legislation, according to the GMSA, accompany other agreements which have not been contested, yet they have not yet been properly constituted.
The Financial Intelligence Unit is one such.
The GSMA said that the general population, the business community and civil society are yet to be assured that the non-contentious requirements in the CFAFT bill have been implemented and put to work.
CFATF requires that Guyana passes the stipulated legislation and implement all the outstanding requirements outlined in its Action Plan. These include mechanisms to fully criminalize money laundering and terrorist financing offences, and address all the requirements regarding beneficial ownership. Guyana also has to strengthen its mechanisms for suspicious transaction reporting, for international co-operation, for freezing and confiscating terrorist assets, and fully implementing the United Nations conventions.
The GSMA said that while some effort has been made to address these deficiencies, the CFATF is not satisfied that Guyana has taken sufficient steps to improve our compliance with the AML/CFT regime.
“Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee need not be reminded that harsh penalties are in store for Guyana if/when the country is eventually classified by the international task Force as NON-COMPLIANT.
“From all appearances, Guyana will again fail to meet the next CFAFT deadline. What they do need reminding of is that the average Guyanese will face the full impact of the penalties for a long time, consequences that promise to disrupt our lives and livelihoods,” Williams said in his statement.
He stated that the stigmatization of Guyana and Guyanese will seep into every pore of this nation and contaminate the nation’s political, social and most of all, our economic wellbeing.
“It takes no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the 5 percent growth that Guyana’s economy has recorded in the past two years could very well be whittled away as the result of the crippling absence of a macro vision, this seeming inability to see the ‘big picture’. The prognosis for this nation is grim once this parliamentary indecisiveness continues.”
The GMSA once again appealed to the legislators to consider the real consequences of their inaction on the people of Guyana, to find agreement on the few amendments to the CFAFT Action Plan, and most of all, to implement the support mechanisms needed to fight money laundering and financing of terrorism.
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