AFC gives Government ultimatum

As tension surrounds the controversial Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill (AML/CFT), Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, has said that his party is prepared to go head to head with the government today. He added that it will not be giving its support unless certain conditions are effected sooner rather than later.
The anti-money laundering Bill that has caused the government and the Parliamentary opposition to be gridlocked over its passage into Law will be up for debate today.

Khemraj Ramjattan

 

Ramjattan said, “We will not support that Bill unless the Public Procurement Commission is established and we will not shift with regard to this position.”

The Attorney at Law has also indicated that his party will be calling for the Parliamentary Select Committee to be restarted for the purposes of getting a more perfect AML/CFT Bill. “We also want the work to be resumed so that stakeholders such as the revered economist, Dr. Clive Thomas can make his submissions before the committee.”
Ramjattan says that he feels that the Procurement Commission is necessary as it will serve as an internal scrutinizer of matters relating to money laundering and other processes that can create wealth through corruption. This, he said, will serve to excellently complement the inspection done by outside powers.
“No longer shall we allow our constitutional rights to be violated,” the AFC leader emphatically expressed.
More importantly, Ramjattan is saying that his party will not give its support to the Bill unless certain conditions are in place by next week.
He said, “By next week we want the government to firstly, send the names of its nominees to the Public Accounts Committee, then for the names to be sent back to Parliament and be given two-third of the majority support, then have these five persons sworn in by the President and then we want a financial paper approving that the five commissioners get monies to do its work.”
Ramjattan said that the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, and his team can go to the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and “tell them to bear with us as we are establishing a much needed Procurement Commission as well as fine tuning the AML Bill.”