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Guyana expects FATF to waive blacklisting
… after Gail Teixeira’s appeal to plenary
By Gary Eleazar
Guyana will today learn its fate on whether the country will be blacklisted internationally following a review by the
Dr Roger Luncheon
Financial Action Taskforce (FAFT) which began meeting on Monday.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, yesterday updated members of the media on the international review. Guyana is being represented by Presidential Advisor on Governance, Gail Teixeira.
Despite the odds currently stacked against Guyana based on a report submitted by the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce (CFATF) that documented the country’s failure to pass the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill, Dr. Luncheon is still hopeful for a positive outcome.
Teixeira has said to the government that a public statement by FAFT on the Guyana review and its decision would be made by today at the earliest.
Teixeira addressed the plenary on Monday and according to Dr. Luncheon her presentation would have revolved around the uniqueness of Guyana’s situation where the government wants the compliant legislation passé, but it is the intransigent opposition that has refused its passage.
According to Dr. Luncheon, the plenary considered her contribution in the context of the contribution that came from CFATF and its report to the plenary.
He said that there is an expectation that FAFT’s decision would recognize the uniqueness of Guyana’s situation.
According to Dr. Luncheon, given Guyana’s situation, FATF will have to operate “outside the box” in coming to a decision on whether to blacklist Guyana internationally or not.
Confronted with the fact that CFATF, when it made its decision against Guyana it did not delink Government from the legislature, Dr. Luncheon said, “I would dance with the devil to get CFATF compliant legislation enacted…Hope beats eternally.”
He conceded that there will be persons who would question the optimism. Given the intransigence of the opposition being the major hurdle, there is some merit in not being optimistic, “but we are made of strong stuff.”
Dr. Luncheon said that Teixeira’s journey to the plenary in Paris, along with other efforts to get CFATF compliant legislation enacted, will not be daunted by reversals along the way. “We just have to keep on struggling.”
He said that it would be virtually intolerable for Guyana to be blacklisted internationally for failing to enact compliant legislation.
The 36 members of FATF and representatives from the FATF-Style Regional Bodies began meeting in Paris for the third and final plenary meeting under the presidency of Vladimir Nechaev of the Russian Federation.
FATF sets standards and promotes effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
The FATF Plenary is the decision-making body of the FATF and is supported by a number of working groups.
Items on the agenda of this week’s Plenary includes, the review of the implementation of measures taken by countries who remain in the ‘follow-up process’ to address deficiencies identified in their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures during the last round of mutual evaluation reports.
The FATF plenary is also looking to identify jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT system and review progress made by jurisdictions that had been identified at the February 2014 Plenary.
It is also set to review and adopt typologies reports on methods and trends in money laundering and terrorist financing, including the report on the risk of terrorist abuse of the non-profit sector.
The plenary is also to engage with the FATF-Style Regional Bodies through the Global Network Co-ordination Group to ensure effective global implementation of the revised FATF recommendations.
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