AML legislation…Opposition amendments will create “underground” money transfer – Rohee

Feb 19, 2014 News

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By Dwijendra Rooplall

General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Clement Rohee, speaking on the amendments that the political opposition are seeking to make with respect to the Anti-Money Laundering Legislation and Substantive Act within the Select Committee to have the Ministers powers reduced/ transferred to the bodies that have that responsibility, expressed that it could have unintended consequences.
The PPP General Secretary said he is following those discussions closely, mainly because it involves the discussions related to giving the police additional powers.

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) had previously said that there is still too much draconian power in the hands of the Ministers and they will be looking to have these reduced as well.
Parliamentarian Joseph Harmon said that according to the Substantive Act, Customs and the Financial Intelligence Unit were only allowed to make and effect search and seizure at the ports of entry, and dealt only with import and export.
According to Harmon, there is money laundering within the boundaries of Guyana and as such, the authorities should be able to target those as well.
He said that to limit this authority to just exports and imports into Guyana was not enough in the fight against Money Laundering.
Harmon said that another meaningful change that the Committee would be effecting is that only very senior ranks should be allowed to conduct searches and seizures of money with entities and persons in Guyana.
He said that this removes the possibility of a junior rank such as a police constable seizing people’s money under the guise of Anti-Money Laundering. This, he said, must only be done by senior ranks and FIU officials, among others.
Rohee said that APNU’s position is inconsistent and made reference to the party’s Chairman Basil Williams during a television programme “Nation Watch” where he said that Williams was questioned by persons during the call-in programme and he was “waffling” and unable to answer definitively on where the opposition coalition stands with respect to their amendments put forward. “having stood up in the Parliament and stoutly argued against it, now the man is waffling on TV, he can’t say definitively what is the position of the APNU…So they are saying one thing in the Parliament but when the pressure braces them, the public pressure…because people asked questions, it was a call-in programme…the man was neither here nor there.”
“He then expressed the need for consistency  ‘our position is very consistent, which is, that a person is stopped on a road or a public place and found with two million Guyana dollars, once he is not stopped by a criminal that’s a different matter, if you are stopped by a criminal obviously it’s to steal your money, but if you are stopped by a law enforcement officer and you are found in possession of two million dollars it means that two million dollars is illegal, once the law is passed it becomes illegal.’”
Rohee expressed that such a position is similar to the days when certain eatables were banned in the country, since it is prohibitive in nature.
“The moment you go into an area of prohibition, you are going to make movement of large sums of money illegal; you are going to force it underground and you are going to see an emergence of a new breed of criminal elements in this country, who will not only be laundering money but will be moving money around illegally because if they are caught with it then they are going to face the consequences.”
The General Secretary said that any time one goes into an area of prohibition you are creating another dimension of the underground economy “and to tell you the truth, I think we have gone past that era. Right now there is a debate taking place on the question of either decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana which is illegal, so why you now want to go in a different direction in respect of money”
“It is true that we need to move away from the cash economy and go plastic and all these things we have been talking about, but that can only happen when we arrive there, until we arrive there, money will move freely” said Rohee.
The General Secretary added that there is another dimension that has to be looked at, and that is the public confidence in the police. He said it is a position that he does not support, but persons are suspicious of the police. Rohee said that it is reported in the media that “when the police go in a house to look for something the people claim that money disappears or jewellery disappears and the police have gone with it. Now you are going to contribute to that same kind of thinking with this kind of operation.”
“I don’t think Guyanese are going to support that, I have heard some phone calls from the call-in programme which made Basil Williams back away already from the position,” Rohee said.

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