Business community decries lack of consultations

Anti-Money Laundering Bill

The local business community has taken the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change Government to task over the lack of consultations on the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill (AML/CFT) and  the new Anti-Terrorism and Terrorist Related Activities Bill to be tabled during today’s sitting of the National Assembly.

PSC Chairman, retired Major General Norman Mc Lean

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams is expected to table the two Bills.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo will move a motion to suspend the Standing Orders to facilitate all three stages (first, second and third readings) of the AML/CFT amendments and the Anti-Terrorism and Terrorist Related Activities Bill in the House.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) said it was surprised and concerned to learn from the media that these two pieces of legislation were about to be tabled and read in Parliament with “no apparent consultation with the business community”.

“There is growing concern regarding consultation and we would hope that this latest example will be the last piece of legislation done in this manner.  Vital pieces of legislation should and must be brought to the attention of affected stakeholders from civil society and the Private Sector so that Article 13 of the Constitution is implemented,” the PSC statement said.

It added that the Commission was as concerned as the Government that the country should be compliant with international requirements but was equally concerned that all law-abiding stakeholders should be protected.

On Tuesday, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) also lambasted the Government over its plans to rush the two Bills, along with the Municipal and District Councils and Local Authorities (Amendment) Bill, through the National Assembly which it described as a “flagrant violation of parliamentary democracy”.

The PPP/C questioned the Government’s haste to pass the AML/CFT amendments without affording Members of Parliament, members of the public or civil society adequate time to scrutinise the proposed amendments.

“One has to ask why the rush on this new AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill when the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs has denied that Guyana is not compliant with FATF [the international Financial Action Task Force]? Why isn’t there the same urgency to set up the AML/CFT Authority and the [Financial Intelligence Unit] FIU as provided for in the Government’s AML/CFT Amendment Act 2015?” the Opposition asked.

The Anti-Terrorism and Terrorist Related Activities Bill is an entirely new 98-page legislation, which the PPP/C said it has never seen before.

“Due to the nature of the Bill, developments in other countries on terrorism and concerns with human rights here in Guyana, this Bill should be properly and publicly scrutinised in a Parliamentary Special Select Committee,” the PPP/C said.
The much-contested Anti-Money Laundering Bill, which had been heavily scrutinised since it was passed in June this year, had been under discussion since 2012.

A PPP/C version of it was tabled in 2013, but to no avail as the then Opposition, APNU and the AFC, used their one-seat majority at that time to prevent its passage in Parliament.

The argument back then was that APNU and the AFC wanted more ‘expansive’ legislation and ‘deeper safeguards’.
As a result of this move, Guyana became blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and the FATF.
In October, Attorney General Williams said that Guyana had managed to fully implement five of the eight recommendations made by the FATF in relation to AML/CFT.

The other three recommendations have been partially implemented, he had said.

Guyana Times was told that the five recommendations which have been implemented are criminalising money laundering and financing of terrorism; confiscation and provisional measures; financial institutions’ secrecy laws; reporting of suspicious transactions and the provision for the FIU.

However, FATF, in a statement, said that more work remained to be done and urged Guyana to continue to implement its action plan, including ensuring and implementing an adequate legal framework for identifying, tracing and freezing terrorist assets; ensuring a fully operational and effectively functioning FIU; establishing effective measures for customer due diligence and enhancing financial transparency; and implementing an adequate supervisory framework.