It is a question of enforcement

Mar 02, 2014 Editorial

After all the noise about Guyana being further blacklisted if it failed to pass the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financial Terrorism Bill, the Bill was not taken to the National Assembly for a vote and passage.
There was a Bill that attracted the support of all the parliamentary parties on February 5, 2014 but according to the government, it could not be taken to the National Assembly because the amendments proposed by A Partnership for National Unity were not included.
What we find troubling is the pace at which the parties attempted to get the piece of legislation into the National Assembly. The meetings of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee were sporadic at best.
It was not until the deadline loomed that there seemed to be some haste to have the piece of legislation ready. And when each supposed deadline passed it was back to the lethargy.
Suddenly we hear that the drop dead date would be February 28 and once more there was the usual hustle and bustle.
President Donald Ramotar met with the opposition parties with a view to reaching an understanding for the passage of the Bill. There were concessions which we feel could have been granted a long time ago but it would seem that these did not go too far.
But what’s the fuss? The government says that the authorities who man the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce want every Caribbean country to be compliant with the demands of the taskforce.
But being compliant by law is one thing. Enforcing the law is another and the entire region has been tardy in enforcing the law. For example, Guyana had an anti-money laundering legislation since 2009. However, the presence of legislation is not enough and it surely was not enough for CFATF. So the entire region came under the spotlight.
It was no secret that the region is weak when it comes to enforcement of the law and this is so for a series of reasons.
For one, corruption is rampant. Many of the law enforcers are not immune from bribes and would subvert the course of justice once the price is right. It is now common knowledge that our policemen are on the take.
The result is that even if there were reports of illegality it is likely that the perpetrator would escape for a series of reasons. As the current law stands, reports to the Financial Intelligence Unit would merely be filed away by some agency. We understand that the more than eight hundred reports of suspicious transactions were forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and remained there without any action. This appeared to be the trend throughout the region.
In steps the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce with a series of recommendations. These recommendations involve the creation of special units to help with the processing of suspicious transactions.
But what is a suspicious transaction in a country that is cash-oriented? For one, if a man has not been known to work anywhere, not in business or in any of the establishments, and he suddenly turns up with a few million dollars then the authorities have a right to become suspicious.
There was the recent case of the British High Commission refusing to sell a property to a young man barely out of his teens but who was prepared to offer twice as much as the property was worth.
The source of the money raised the suspicion of the British. However, this young man could not have kept the money under his bed; he must have had to store it in some financial institution. The deposits would have been enough to raise suspicion, especially being made by someone so young.
There were no interventions by the authorities and this is what the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce has noted. Now CFATF wants to see action against the obvious cases of money laundering.
However, without legislation to allow for such interventions Guyana is in dire straits.

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