AML deadlock…Sign the Bills or C’bean and Guyanese will suffer- Greenidge

Amidst concerns over the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill which remains in a gridlock position, A Partnership for National Unity’s Shadow Minister of Finance, Carl Greenidge has come forth to express his frustrations by stating, “It is time to end the deadlock”.

Greenidge said that at the heart of the problem is the refusal of the Government to implement mechanisms to correct unconstitutional provisions in the Fiscal Management &Accountability (FAM) Act of 2003 in particular, and the insistence of the Government in controlling the key institutions that are supposed to be independent.
He added that if President Donald Ramotar assents to the Bills passed by the House, it will “reduce the scope for manipulation of key state institutions and the overnight generation of new regulations such as the recently revealed, ‘Ministerial Protocol’ as articulated by the Commissioner of Police”.
The policy, Greenidge said, is designed to place Ministers of the Government above the law.
The APNU member said that the deadlines for withholding assent on the Constitutional Amendment Bill and the FMA Bill 2013 have long expired. And while the President has only written the Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman, with regard to the matter, the House was never granted the courtesy of an excuse from the President for his inaction.
The Opposition believes that it is not merely a question of incompetence on the part of the President’s advisers but sheer political manipulation and cynicism.
Greenidge noted that the President suggested that specific clauses in or parts of the Bills are unconstitutional. “There is a case, therefore, to have these elements removed via negotiation or put to the courts for a determination.”
He continued that in the case of the Budget 2013 cuts and the Appropriation Bill, the President assented to the legislation but, claiming that amendments reflected in the Appropriation Act were unconstitutional, then appealed to the courts to allow monies not approved to be spent. “Although he claimed that the Act was unconstitutional, he signed it and spent what it authorized and did not authorize. In other words, his actions can be interpreted as implementing what he regarded as legal and ignoring what he claimed was unconstitutional. We should therefore not allow the President to play games with the public on Constitutional matters. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.”
Greenidge urged that the Bills should be signed and then the President may challenge that part which poses difficulty.
“Since the complaints set out by him concern a few specific clauses, the courts should be asked to strike down those elements, if indeed they offend the Constitution. The entire set of clauses in the Bills does not need to be held hostage by the Attorney General’s flawed interpretation of the law.”
The politician said that APNU would subsequently invite the courts to look at the matter and then the Caribbean Court of Justice if necessary.
“Ultimately, if the local courts fail to provide a satisfactory decision or to do so with dispatch, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) can be asked to look at the matter. It has jurisdiction to hear such a matter.”
The worst he asserts can happen from granting the Opposition’s demands to honour constitutional obligations as regards the Local Government Bills and the PPC is that the Former President, Bharrat Jagdeo will get a few thousand dollars less than he voted for himself before he left office.
Greenidge charged, “It ought not to lead to a Constitutional crisis.”
He said that the Government should assent to the Bills or else he will make the Caribbean Community and citizens suffer because of his mistake.
“The choice therefore lies between unnecessary additional resources for Mr. Jagdeo and the continuing ability of the President to undermine the independence of the Judiciary on the one hand and, on the other hand, the future well-being of the Guyanese people as a whole.”