– Opposition accuses Govt of high-level dishonesty, offers help

By Alexis Rodney and Kristen Macklingam

Legal Affairs Minister and Attorney General Basil Williams on Wednesday said that contrary to public belief, Guyana has been compliant to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and is “light years away from being blacklisted”.

He was responding to reporters’ questions about reports that Guyana remained blacklisted on the FATF charter, because it has failed to come up to the requirements set out by the international financial regulatory body.

He said the newly-minted A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government came in for high praise from both the International Coordinating Review Group (ICRG) and the FATF Plenary, at the recently concluded Meeting in Paris, France.

The ICRG, he said, adopted the Assessors’ report of its regional arm, the Americas Regional Review Group (ARRG) which stated that the main development in Guyana is the enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Amendment Act 2015 which became enforceable on July 10, 2015.

According to Williams, the present position is that of the eight recommendations in the agreed action plan for which Guyana has fully implemented five and partially implemented three.

FATF, he said, has set a premium on the sincerity of high-level commitments given by the Governments and their political will to implement its measures.

“From the outset of this Administration, President David Granger wrote the President of FATF assuring him of the new Government’s commitment to remedying the deficiencies identified, and implementing its recommendations,” the AG said. He said both the ICRG and Plenary Meetings noted that his presence was ample testimony to the Government’s commitment to expediting its commitments to the FATF process.

And so, according to him, from the foregoing it is clear that an APNU/AFC Government is light years away from being black-listed.

As it relates to the strengthening of anti-money laundering institutions, the Attorney General says the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is fully functional.

Return to Parliament Meanwhile, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Chief Whip Gail Teixeira on Wednesday said that the AML/CFT Bill has to be returned to the National Assembly inclusive of additional amendments where necessary in order to ensure that Guyana becomes compliant to the FATF.

In this regard, her Party is demanding that the Administration swiftly move to name 10 appointees for the AML/CFT Authority, which can be implemented without securing a two-thirds majority of votes at the parliamentary level.

Guyana Times was told that in addition to this, the PPP/C is of the view that there needed to be other activities implemented which would successfully secure Guyana’s compliancy with the FATF.

“In the interim, before the Authority is set up, (the Government) should re-establish the National Advisory Committee, which is an administrative body that does not need parliamentary approval to address the deficiencies pointed out by FATF and improve work of supervisory bodies and keep Guyana on track with what needs to be done in time for the next review. And bring further amendments to the AML/CFT (Amendment) Act to bring Guyana into compliance with FATF,” she declared.

According to the PPP/C Chief Whip, ever since Guyana had been declared as ‘non-compliant’ by the FATF, its people and many businesses have faced major difficulties thereby suffering tremendously and this urgently needed to be addressed. Teixeira pointed out that her Party can “feel some vindication” for the positions it took in highlighting the inadequacies of the law that was pushed through Parliament as well as underscoring the fact that the country would not be FATF compliant. Guyana Times was further told that Guyana needed to “move quickly” because the country has lost much time as a result of attitudes that reflect the “carelessness,”, “dismissiveness”, and “disregard” by the APNU/AFC coalition.

According to Teixeira, the PPP/C is willing to work along with the Administration to ensure that Guyana becomes compliant; however, it is the government which will have to lead and once the APNU/AFC does this, then the Opposition will willingly offer its support on this matter.

She told reporters that her Party, while in Opposition, would not block any moves by the coalition Government just for the sake of doing so, particularly in cases where the interests of Guyanese were to be served.

The PPP/C Chief Whip underscored the fact that from the beginning when Guyana was declared non-compliant by the FATF the country had faced punishment for an extended period of time to date.

It was further noted that the law which was passed by this Government needed to be and has to be implemented and amendments have to be made.

This newspaper was also told that two countries which were on the list of countries under review by FATF have “come off” since they have now been deemed compliant.

The countries are Ecuador and Sudan.

Teixeira questioned the fact that if a country like Sudan which has a history of war and limited resources can make it off of the FATF watch list, why is it that a country like Guyana cannot do the same.

Guyana Times understands that the FATF in its recent report cited Guyana’s efforts in October last year (under the PPP/C Administration) as a demonstration of “high-level” commitment, but stated that despite passing legislation under the new APNU/AFC Government, the country still has “strategic deficiencies” in its AML/CFT framework.

As a result of these deficiencies, Guyana has not been removed from the list of countries which are still under review by FATF.