Anti Money Laundering Legislation...Govt. reacted only in face of CFATF sanctions

Anti Money Laundering Legislation…Govt. reacted only in face of CFATF sanctions

Feb 22, 2014 News

…APNU also wants functionally empowered BoG, FIU, SOCU, DPP

A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU), David Granger, is of the opinion that the ruling administration’s record of enforcement of the existing Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Legislation, has been one of inconsistency and incompetence.
Granger met with members of the media yesterday and said that the coalition is committed to strong legislation being in place but it is also determined “that the Bank of Guyana (BoG), the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are functionally

Opposition Leader, David Granger, yesterday addressing members of the media in the company of other APNU members

empowered with the needed autonomy and equipped with the technical and institutional capabilities and capacity to effectively discharge the functions assigned to them by the amended 2009 Act.”
The Opposition Leader told media operatives that the ruling administration has been deliberately dilatory and delinquent in enforcing its own anti-money-laundering legislation for over 13 years.
“It has not been diligent to implement reforms…It has reacted only when forced to do so by direct threats of sanctions by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and the international financial community.”
He reminded that a special select committee was established by the National Assembly in June 2007 to examine a new Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill.
That committee started work a year later under its chairman Dr. Ashni Singh, Minister of Finance, with the new law being enacted more than two years later in 2009.
In seeking to formally outline the administration’s position on seriously addressing money laundering in Guyana, Granger reminded that the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act was introduced in 2000 by the administration 14 years ago and while it was assented to by then President Bharrat Jagdeo on March 29 of that year it was never fully enforced.
He reminded that the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act of 2009 was then enacted under international pressure and assented to by Jagdeo in August 2009.
According to Granger, that, too, was “never fully enforced.”
A year later, according to Granger, there were amendments to the legislation and the Law was still never fully enforced
“It was clear, therefore, that the PPP/C administration was in no hurry to consider legislative changes even while it had preponderant voting strength in both the Select Committee and the National Assembly during both the Eighth and Ninth Parliaments from 2001 to 2011.”
He said that despite the introduction of the new Act, CFATF identified numerous deficiencies and delinquencies in Guyana’s performance.
CFATF subsequently made several recommendations to strengthen the Act, the Bank of Guyana and the Financial Intelligence Unit in a series of Mutual Evaluation Reports (MER).
He noted that the third round of evaluation that was adopted by the CFATF Council of Ministers in May 2011 in Honduras, stated: “Guyana was placed on a list of jurisdictions with strategic anti-money-laundering and combating the financing of terrorism deficiencies that have not made sufficient progress in addressing the deficiencies and required Guyana to take specific steps to address these deficiencies by November 2013.”
CFATF reported, further, “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2013 was presented in Parliament on April 22, 2013, a week before its deadline of April 30, 2013.”
The Opposition leader stressed, it was only in April 2013, when Guyana was threatened with being ‘blacklisted’ and deadlines for compliance were set that the Government was forced to introduce amendments to the Act in the National Assembly.