The Private Sector Commission expressed deep disappointed after learning that Guyana’s status with the Financial

Private Sector Commission Chairman, Norman McLean

Action Task Force and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force has not changed. Even though legislative requirements were met by the passing of the amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act, Guyana remains blacklisted on the CFATF Charter. The Commission which represents the interests of local private businesses, said while it acknowledge the significant steps taken to remedy Guyana’s AML/CFT deficiencies in the passing of this Act, Guyana had agreed to an Action Plan with the Financial Action Task Force in October 2014. It said the implementation of this Plan remains crucial to the removal of the country from any list of countries that need to be monitored by the FATF and, until all the elements agreed to have been effectively dealt with, transactions emanating from Guyana will continue to be subjected to additional scrutiny. The Action Plan it said included a commitment to ensuring a fully operational and effectively functioning financial intelligence unit, the establishment of effective measures for customer due diligence and financial transparency and the implementation of an adequate supervisory framework. The commission said it is deeply concerned that Guyana remains on the monitoring list by FATF and calls on government to urgently take the steps necessary to remedy the strategic AML/CFT deficiencies. On Wednesday, Legal Affairs Minister/Attorney General Basil Williams said Guyana has been compliant to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and is “light years away from being blacklisted”. He said the newly-minted A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) government came in for high praise from both the International Coordinating Review Group (ICRG) and the FATF Plenary, at the recently concluded Meeting in Paris, France. The ICRG, he said, adopted the Assessors’ report of its regional arm, the Americas Regional Review Group (ARRG) which stated that the main development in Guyana is the enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Amendment Act 2015 which became enforceable on July 10, 2015. According to Williams, the present position is that of the eight recommendations in the agreed action plan for which Guyana has fully implemented five and partially implemented three. FATF, he said, has set a premium on the sincerity of high-level commitments given by the Governments and their political will to implement its measures. “From the outset of this Administration, President David Granger wrote the President of FATF assuring him of the new Government’s commitment to remedying the deficiencies identified, and implementing its recommendations,” the AG said. He said both the ICRG and Plenary Meetings noted that his presence was ample testimony to the Government’s commitment to expediting its commitments to the FATF process. And so, according to him, from the foregoing it is clear that an APNU/AFC government is light years away from being black-listed.
As it relates to the strengthening of anti-money laundering institutions, the Attorney General says the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is fully functional.