Anti Money Laundering Legislation…Deadline depends on Govt action - APNU

Anti Money Laundering Legislation…Deadline depends on Govt action – APNU

May 22, 2014 News

Carl Greenidge, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Shadow Minister of Finance, has expressed the coalition’s position on Guyana’s Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill and its May 29, deadline.

APNU Shadow Minister of Finance Carl Greenidge

Greenidge said, “We need to bear in mind that the May deadline is one of many deadlines. You should not have the idea that the deadline is going to be met and we are going to have Nirvana afterwards.
“There are a series of obligations which the government of Guyana is obliged to meet. This is only the first in the set of obligations. The ones down the line may be even more severe,” said Greendige.
“There is no way that the deadline can be met unless the government takes the action that is required of it and between the government and opposition to collaborate to make sure that the conditions that are required are met expeditiously.”
He said that the objective therefore is to make sure that “we have a regime in place that can deal on a continuing basis with a series of deadlines— deadlines about implementation, about effectiveness of reporting, deadlines about analysis of financial transactions.”
“I think that the government seems to feel that it can simply frog march us to take a decision on the assumption that people will be frightened into apocalypse tomorrow and we simply sign on the dotted line and the process will go ahead.”
The Shadow Finance Minister alluded to the seriousness of Guyana being non compliant with the passage of its AML legislation. Both the government and opposition agree on the seriousness of the situation.
Greenidge said, however, “If it is a very serious situation and we were unlikely to have encountered a serious situation as this in the past, then why is it the government can’t do the things that the opposition requires because the things that the opposition requires and things which are set out in the constitution.”
He continued that if Government feels that what the opposition is calling for is wrong, then the government should assent to it and have it challenged in the Courts similar to how they have done before.
“They felt that the Budget was so bad because it was cut. The government still went ahead and asked that the budget be passed. It then spent the money although the budget didn’t approve it and then went to the Courts.”
According to Greenidge, the question should not be asked to the opposition whether the AML/CFT legislation is going to be passed. It should be directed to Government who he said is not taking “the appropriate action to have constitutional obligations met.”
“The political reality here in Guyana is that the National Assembly passed the PPP/C Administration’s Money Laundering (prevention) Act of 2000. It was assented to by President Jagdeo on March 29, 2000.
“Since then, there have been no prosecutions, including under the AML/ CFT Act of 2009,” said APNU.

Presidential advisor on governance Gail Teixeira

Presidential Advisor on Governance, Gail Teixeira, reiterated that the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) would be meeting in the last week of May. “It is expected that Guyana would have a Bill assented to in time, otherwise we, as far as I know, are automatically referred to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) as a country that’s not in compliance.”
She said that FATF will be meeting in June to decide whether Guyana will be internationally blacklisted.
“I am advised that it is automatic; if we miss this last deadline we will be referred to FATF and the ICRG.”

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News