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Anti Money Laundering Law …Opposition bent on taking Guyana back to 1964/1992 era- Whittaker
The combined Opposition seems bent once again on taking Guyana back to the epoch of the 1964 to 1992 era by their failure to pass the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill.
This is according to acting Minister of Local Government, Norman Whittaker, who yesterday decided to add his voice to those seeking to press the political Opposition to urgently pass the Bill.
Minister of Local Government (ag), Norman Whittaker
Whittaker yesterday said that the Opposition only wants to demonstrate that they are powerful and that they can make Guyana ungovernable.
“We cannot allow that to happen,” urged Minister Whittaker.
He said when Guyana was blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce (CFATF), “one would have thought that the political Opposition who claim to have the interest and welfare of the Guyanese people at heart would see the negative impact and the imminent jeopardy in which they were about to place our country; since we will be subject to sanctions if we did not comply and put the required legislative reforms in place.”
Whittaker holds the view that the non passage of the Bill will negatively affect bilateral financial arrangements with other countries.
“Loans and grants to Guyana will suffer and so too will money transfers in and out of Guyana…The flow will be adversely affected…Trade deals will be much more difficult as will import and export of goods…So if my brother in the USA wants to send me a few dollars, it will be more difficult for him to do so and more difficult for me to get it; all because the risk rating of Guyana will go up.”
Whittaker noted too that money borrowed by investors will attract a higher interest rate.
“Already I have been told that some banks have been reporting delays in sending and receiving monies with mandatory measures now in place to verify the identities of the persons transacting business.”
He suggested that Guyana’s international image will be blemished and this may well make travel and investment more difficult to obtain.
“A citizen from a suspected drug country will be subject to much closer scrutiny…None of this is good for any of us…We should all be very worried.”
Whittaker said that the Opposition has expressed that the Bill places too much enforcement powers in the hands of two Ministers and that it must be cleaned up.
“What do they offer as an alternative; as an improvement? They table three amendments, but many including CFATF Financial Adviser Roger Hernandez expressed concerns that some of the proposed amendments to the Principal Act could land Guyana in danger zone.”
Whittaker said that “try as we may, though these risks were outlined, we have not to date succeeded in getting APNU/AFC to recall these amendments which include vesting police and customs officers with the power to seize currency from any person, anywhere in Guyana, if those Officers have reason to believe that the currency is the proceeds of crime or will be used to finance crime.”
He noted too that the Opposition also wants the President to assent to Bills which they passed in the National Assembly using their one seat majority “even though we did not support them.”
Whittaker posits that “both Opposition Parties are obviously enemies of progress and therefore of the Guyanese people. The Guyanese people want progress; they want development. As I move around this Guyana people are asking questions: they want to know if the role of the Opposition has been redefined; they want to know what manner of people are these.”
According to Minister Whittaker, “our voices must continue to be sounded and to be heard…The Opposition must put our country and its people and their well-being first.”
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