FATF gives Guyana four months before targeted review

After comprehensive consideration by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at its June Plenary, Guyana was not

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon

considered for further blacklisting. Instead, Guyana having been referred to FATF by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) would be subjected to a targeted review. This targeted review, according to the Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon, would actually allow four months (until October 2014) for further work on achieving FATF compliant Anti Money Laundering (AML) legislation, upon which Guyana will be reviewed by the “North American branch contingent of FATF.” Within that four-month period he said, that government intends to focus its attention on the achievement of the enacted FATF complaint legislation “but also in the context of the review has also dedicated attention to the non legislative recommendations that were submitted by CFATF during their third round of the multilateral evaluation mechanisms on Guyana.” Luncheon recalled that Cabinet had favourably pronounced on matters related to the non legislative recommendation specifically heightening investigations and prosecution of money laundering offences. One such matter was the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), the unit dedicated to investigating suspected financial transactions suggestive of money laundering and financing of terrorism. He said that the hope is that these non legislative interventions “would indeed be fast tracked and support would be provided at all levels in having this more recent initiative completed.” Luncheon didn’t express hope, however, when speaking to the concerns and demands that the combined opposition had before support could be given to the AML Bill. The Alliance For Change (AFC’s) had called for the establishment of the constitutionally mandated Public Procurement Commission (PPC) without Cabinet’s no objection to contracts above $15M. A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) called for the re-tabling of the Local Government Bills within the National Assembly in addition to the amendments they have with AML legislation itself. He made reference to the two times that the government engaged the opposition coalition APNU to get the AML legislation passed. Luncheon recalled that he spoke to the APNU concerning agreeing to the non- assented Bills in Parliament saying that “you get what you wanted, we get what Guyana wanted, but Mr. Granger and Mr. Harmon insisted that you got to bring AFC on board. I never heard a word from AFC, call, phone, text to no avail.” He spoke to the second occasion where President Donald Ramotar said, that APNU’s amendments to the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill will be enacted but that too was to no avail. Luncheon referred to the actions of the combined opposition’s non assent to the passage of the AMLCFT Bill as “machinations” and cited that going forward the only thing expected is “prayer” since currently “there is nothing on the table.”