APNU parroting other stakeholders’ concerns on AMLCFT bill-AG

AS another deadline looms for the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Bill, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is still to reveal their proposed amendments which they deem as necessary for the support of this critical piece of legislation.Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General (AG), Anil Nandlall said that the party’s most recent input, at the level of the select committee, has been to echo the contributions of other stakeholders. Repeatedly, APNU’s Leader, Mr David Granger and several members of the party have said, in the newspapers and in the electronic media, that they want a comprehensive bill that will benefit and protect the Guyanese people. The AG was at the time speaking on the programme “The Conversation’ aired on the National Communications Network, recently.
“This is a very idealistic and very commendable position to have except that you cannot get such a bill without making a contribution, if you believe that which is being presented does not capture the sentiments that you would like to see in such a bill,” the minister pointed out. He noted that it has been 11 months since he presented the bill to the National Assembly, and it has since been debated twice and sent to two different select committees, in which, the Opposition enjoyed a majority, in terms of membership.
“I am yet to see a piece of paper which contains any recommendations, any suggestions, any proposed amendment to this bill emanating from any of the opposition parties,” Nandlall said.
Indeed the Alliance For Change (AFC) in all fairness has made their position clear from the earliest. They have said, unequivocally that they do not have a problem with the bill, that they will support the bill on certain conditions. “The APNU on the other hand keeps saying, expressing these idyllist sentiments and expectations that they want a comprehensive bill,” he said, but haven’t put forward any suggestions of their own.
“The other day, Mr. Jaipaul Sharma made a contribution. He argued in the committee that the bill was wrongly numbered and I conceded that the draft person made a mistake in numbering the bill so we corrected the numbering,” he said. The minister said this is the only contribution he can recall being put forward from an APNU member in the select committee with regards to their own views. He said however, the party has basically been making comments on the observations of stakeholders.
“I do not know that they have originated any comment, any criticism of the bill itself. What they have been doing repeatedly is commenting on someone’s contribution to the bill,” he said. “For example, Mr. (Joe) Harmon spoke about the bankers’ concern and Mr. (Basil) Williams would have spoken about the Bar Association’s concern, but we are not hearing what their concerns are,” he said.
“Their original concerns, with respect of the bill, must be one of the greatest guarded secrets in this country because they know about it and they seem to be refusing to share it with anyone else,” he said.
One concern has been that the bill is draconian, which is harsh and oppressive in its provision. The minister said that he is not in sympathy with that position, since the bill is intended to be draconian. “You are dealing with crimes that are of an exceptional nature …the impact of these crimes on society has been devastating, they have actually led to the death of thousands of people…you have to get draconian measures to meet and to combat these crimes and this is what this bill seeks to do, that is the philosophy and that is the sentiment which inspired this bill,” he said.
“So when you go through the provisions, you will see on the face something that appears to authorise a functionary named in the bill to enter your premises and search it and seize material from it, but I said elsewhere, a hundred years ago, or more we gave those powers to police officers, to tax officers, to customs officer, to National Insurance Scheme (NIS) officers and recently we give those powers to the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) officers. What we are simply doing here is giving these powers to a new set of officers to deal with a new set of problems, which are recognised internationally as creating and wreaking havoc on countries and society,” he said.
In crafting the bill, great care was taken to pacify what he considered to be extraordinary harsh provisions. “For example, the fine regime in the bill, the recommendation came in US$ for the fine to be imposed, when I calculated them in Guyana dollars they translated into $5M. Now those are fines that are totally out of sync with the regime of fines which are in the exempt laws of Guyana. I tried to refine them and to reduce them, and on several occasions, I was successful, but on many occasions they (CFATF-Caribbean Financial Action Task Force) rejected my proposal on the ground that I am making the fines less stringent than originally proposed that they would no longer be dissuasive,” he said.
Another aspect of the recommendation which the minister said that he refined had to deal with residing of power. He explained that originally a set of power was to be exercised by him (the AG), being one of the main mover in the bill. This includes the power to instantaneously freeze or cause a person’s account in a commercial bank to be frozen.
“I rejected that, I said no officer in an executive government should be resided with such plenitude and amplitude of power because it can be subject to and it is liable to abuse. I prefer to divert that power away from the executive and place it in the judiciary,” he said. He said that he amended that recommendation to say that the AG must instead approach a judge for an order to freeze a particular account.
Government did not conjure up these amendments pertaining to the bill; these are amendments that were recommended to Government by a governing body to guard against the crimes relating to anti-money laundering. The fact that Guyana is the last country now to implement these measures is why the country is at present blacklisted by Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF). (GINA)