Propagandizing will not pass the AML
Bill – AFC
- Gov’t needs to engage Parliamentary Opposition
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill which Government is hoping to get the House’s majority vote on will not get passed through “propagandizing”. This is the view of Treasurer for the Alliance for Change (AFC) Mr. Dominic Gaskin. Gaskin was at the time speaking at the Party’s weekly press briefing.
AFC Executive Dominic Gaskin
According to Gaskin, Government, while it extends tremendous energy and resources both human and financial, has failed to extend even a small fraction of that energy towards reaching consensus with the parliamentary political parties. Gaskin said that while it is beneficial for the electorate to be informed on the provisions of the Bill, the AFC notes that the many outreaches by Government has failed to address this area and have instead been used to cast blame on the Opposition. “Government also continuously fails to explain to those who attend the outreaches, why it failed to bring the amendments to the house for over 17 months” Gaskin told the media. He noted that many would recall that the Caribbean Financial action Task Force (CFATF) had indicated the need to amend legislation as early as November 2011. Gaskin further noted that even after the sitting of CFATF for close to one and a half years, the Government when it did bring the amendments to the House was recalcitrant is providing all the needed information to the Opposition. “Now that the Government finds itself under pressure from local, regional and international bodies to pass the amendments, it is blaming the Opposition for the delays” he said. Gaskin said that one would expect Government to engage all political parties at a tripartite level to resolve differences so that the Bill could be passed, but it seems as though they are opposed to this. “It must be made clear, that no amount of propagandizing and electioneering can get the Bill passed without engaging the Parliamentary Opposition” Gaskin posited. Recently, APNU had stressed that the ruling Administration’s record of enforcement of the existing Anti-Money Laundering Bill has been one of inconsistency and incompetence. Leader, Brig David Granger had stated that the coalition is committed to strong legislation being in place but is also determined “that the Bank of Guyana (BoG), the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are functionally empowered with the needed autonomy and equipped with the technical and institutional capabilities and capacity to effectively discharge the functions assigned to them by the amended 2009 Act.” The Opposition Leader had said that the ruling Administration has been deliberately dilatory and delinquent in enforcing its own anti-money-laundering legislation for over 13 years. “It has not been diligent to implement reforms…It has reacted only when forced to do so by direct threats of sanctions from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and the international financial community.” He reminded that a Special Select Committee was established by the National Assembly in June 2007 to examine a new Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill. That Committee started work a year later under its chairman Dr. Ashni Singh, Minister of Finance, with the new law being enacted more than two years later in 2009. CFATF reported, further, “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2013 was presented in Parliament on April 22, 2013, a week before its deadline of April 30, 2013.” The Opposition leader stressed, it was only in April 2013, when Guyana was threatened with being ‘blacklisted’ and deadlines for compliance were set that the Government was forced to introduce amendments to the Act in the National Assembly.
