[www.inewsguyana.com] – Guyana has completed its presentation before the 38th Plenary Meeting of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) in the Bahamas according to Presidential Advisor on Governance Gail Teixeira.

Guyana’s fate is now the hands of CFATF which will be made known at the end of the meeting on Thursday, November 21.

Guyana is on the verge of being blacklisted as a non-compliant country by the body for its failure to pass the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Amendment Bill.  Representing Guyana in The Bahamas is Attorney – at – Law, Anil Nandlall.

Nandlall asked the CFATF body for an extension to the deadline and explained to them the reason for Guyana being non – compliant.

The Amendment Bill was recently voted down in the National Assembly by a majority opposition vote. Guyana was supposed to be in accordance with the regulations of CFATF by November 18.

It was reported that CFATF has already drafted a report blacklisting Guyana and there is all likelihood that it would be adopted.

Guyana as a member of CFATF – an organization of 29 states in the Caribbean basin – had agreed to implement common counter measures to address the problem of money laundering with time frames for doing same.

Guyana was granted an extra six months in May to pass the Bill and adopt the CFATF recommendations that had been put forward.

The opposition had said that the Bill was incomplete and as such did not support its passage. The Private Sector Commission has since petitioned CFATF to give Guyana a further extension to become fully compliant.