Anti-Money Laundering Bill…Special
select committee to meet on Monday
More than a month after the National Assembly recommitted to a Special Select Committee the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill, the body will meet for the first time on Monday. This was confirmed yesterday by Attorney General, Anil Nandlall and Leader of the Political Opposition Brigadier (rtd) David Granger. It was the Parliament’s Committees Division that sent out the notices to the various parties.
Attorney General,
Anil Nandlall
Minister Nandlall in an invited comment said that he will once again be declining to chair the Committee and the Government will submit the name of its Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira, in this regard. That item will be first on the agenda of the Special Select Parliamentary Committee.
While all of the Government’s representatives on the committee will remain the same, there will be a change on the part of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
Granger told this publication that over the weekend APNU will have to work out which one of its members will replace Deputy Speaker Deborah Backer.
Backer had sat as an APNU representative on the last committee which was disbanded in October last year. She is currently hospitalised in the United States.
According to Granger, APNU’s position on the money laundering Bill remains the same, in that it would seek to scrutinize the entire list of amendments as well as submissions from stakeholders. He reminded that at the time the committee was disbanded by Government in October last, it was addressing the submissions made by Professor Clive Thomas.
The Parliamentary Body had invited submissions from a number of stakeholders, and according to Granger, all of these will be thoroughly reviewed.
Granger added that APNU has no problem with Teixeira as Chairperson of the Committee and the assumption is that she will be voted as chair again.
The work of the committee will continue until the opposition is comfortable with what will be taken back to parliament, and all of this occurs even as Guyana remains blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).
Guyana was sanctioned by CFATF following the rejection of a previous Bill it debated in November.
The report of the Special Select Committee that was previously tasked with consideration of the amendments was presented to the House at the time by the Government’s Chief Whip and Chairperson of that Committee, Gail Teixeira.
Nandlall presented the Bill for a third reading, at which point in time the House descended into trading of barbs, on and off the floor, with each side blaming each other. Government speakers contended that the Opposition had delayed and dragged its feet during the six months the Committee met.
Teixeira told the House that over the course of time, the Committee met on 17 occasions, most of which the opposition was poorly represented or absent altogether.
Opposition Leader David Granger
APNU’s point man on finances, Carl Greenidge, informed the House that the Government had reneged on agreements in the Committee, and as such, the coalition wanted the Bill recommitted.
Government in turn said that the Opposition had dithered for six months and any recommitting to the Committee would have to be time bound, so that the Bill could return to the House and be enacted before the November 18 review.
When the Opposition refused to give a commitment on a timeline, Nandlall was forced to put the Bill to a vote, and it was promptly greeted with a resounding “no.” This led to a division of the votes which resulted in a 33-28 outcome.