General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr Anil Nandlall, speaking on the National Communications Network (NCN) yesterday reported that Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) has rejected the Opposition’s amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) Bill.

After the CFATF Chairperson, Allyson Maynard-Gibson along with the Executive Director of CFATF had met with both the Government and Leader of the Opposition and outlined the importance of passing the bill and the consequences that would flow following non-compliance, the Government of Guyana was invited to send to the CFATF for examination by its technical personnel for compliance, a copy of both the Government’s draft and the Opposition’s draft of the legislation, he explained.
In an effort to arrive at compromise, Minister Nandlall had presented counter proposals to the Opposition’s recommendations.
For the reason that Government’s amendments were already approved by CFATF, Minister Nandlall said that Government sent a covering letter along with the Opposition’s draft to the CFATF, “and as I predicted, the CFATF rejected every single one of the amendments that they are proposing,” he said.
One of the proposals call for a removal of the role of the Attorney General from the process. “The CFATF’s answer to that suggestion was that it is wrong. The Attorney General is put there because he/she is legal advisor to the Government and would be recipient of all legal materials that would come into the Government’s position in relation to its relations with organisations such as the United Nations Security Council and other international organisations. And it is the Attorney General that will have to go to court for and behalf of the Government to seek certain orders to give effect to the Government’s obligation under various treaties, and therefore the Office of the Attorney General is important in the legislative apparatus of the AMLCFT regime,” Minister Nandlall explained.
The Opposition also proposed that Parliament appoint an authority to oversee and supervise the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), its operations and officers. Government has long maintained that this type of mechanism would undermine the functional autonomy of the FIU which by all international standards must be functionally independent and autonomous in the discharge of its day to day function, and as well, must be free and insulated from political interference and influence both apparent and real, a view shared by CFATF. Minister Nandlall noted that CFATF has rejected as well this proposal.
“The CFATF’s advice on that particular proposal of the Opposition was that it does not meet the international standards, that the mechanism for appointment is politically contaminated and that the method or the mechanism that it creates removes from the FIU and its staff and directors that important requisite autonomy and functional independence,” Minister Nandlall disclosed.
The third condemnation relates to what was submitted of the Opposition’s draft with regards to seizure of cash. This was rejected on the basis that it was not part of the requirement and that it is a completely unnecessary imposition, Minister Nandlall said (GINA).