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May 22, 2013 News
By Abena Rockcliffe
Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee yesterday accused A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) of “going against the country” and acting without the interest of Guyana at heart.
The Minister was referring to the latest move by APNU to withdraw its support from the Special Select Committee set up to fine tune amendments to Guyana’s law on financial crimes.
On Monday, Leader of APNU, David Granger sent President Donald Ramotar a letter informing him that the party will no longer contribute to the Special Select Committee. That move is one that will drastically affect the government’s plan to have the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill passed.
Granger attributed his party’s pullout to the fact that he wasn’t given a letter sent to the President by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) since April 10, last; one which was supposed to be shared with him and the rest of the opposition.
The CFATF is an arm of the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an independent inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing, among other financial crimes.
Granger is asking for an explanation from the President, as to why the letter wasn’t shared for the information of the Opposition, before the party participates again in the Special Select Committee.
Yesterday, Rohee, who sits on the committee, referred to APNU’s sudden pullout as an “unfortunate development.”
According to Rohee, the Party is going against the country by not supporting the Bill. He said that the move “does not help Guyana at all” and any move that would not “help our Country” is one that would be regretted in the long run.
Rohee told media operatives that the way he sees it is that APNU never intended to see the Bill to the end of the road and was only looking for a reason to withdraw “which they eventually found in the letter.”
“The letter issue is being used as an excuse to pullout. I’m not so sure it is really the letter. I think it is a host of other matters. The opposition has always been looking for an excuse to pull out. The AFC (Alliance for Change) was more brazen in stating their position. But APNU sought to find an excuse which they eventually found in the letter to which they keep referring.”
The Minister sought to point out that the opposition hadn’t the control at the level of the select committee and inferred that to be one of the reasons for the non support.
“They didn’t have the chairmanship, but Teixeira (Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira) is the chairman and she, the Attorney General (Anil Nandlall) and the Finance Minister (Ashni Singh) put forward strong, very convincing arguments and they gave them (APNU) every single document requested…”
Rohee said that another factor could have been the fact that the government is pressed for time and wanted to meet more frequently than normal.
In conclusion, Rohee said that there are definitely other factors contributing to the pullout and they are “of course of a political nature”.
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