Opposition Leader, David Granger and President Donald Ramotar.

[www.inewsguyana.com] – President Donald Ramotar today revealed that he met with Leader of the Opposition, David Granger yesterday (Wednesday, June 18) and proposed to him that the government was willing to pass the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill with the Opposition’s amendments; however Granger declined the offer.

In a statement issued, the President noted that the government was willing to vote for the Bill even though they felt it was non compliant, but wanted the Bill to be passed in the National Assembly before the Financial Action Task Force meets later this month.

Guyana has already been blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force.

President Ramotar explained that he made the proposal on the grounds that the Opposition should not link the AML Bill to their other demands, which includes the President’s assent to the Bill passed in the National Assembly and his support to the Public Procurement Commission being established without Cabinet retaining its role in granting no-objection to awards above $15M.

“The Opposition Leader declined my offer,” the President noted.

“We have worked hard to get the Legislation through because we believe that the consequences could be very serious for our people. We said before that it was a patriotic duty to have this Bill passed and spare you the Guyanese people the negative consequences of not doing so. Unfortunately the Opposition seems to have put more importance on its own narrow political, party agenda before the welfare and interest of our people"