Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 08, 2014 News
Despite the fact that there has only been one report of a suspicious financial transaction sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) coupled with the fact that there have been no prosecutions, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, insists that Guyana’s current Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Law is strong.
“The principal act that we have in place is itself a very strong piece of legislation,” said Dr. Singh, who was at the time speaking at a special media briefing held at the NCN Studios to update on the current limbo surrounding the Bill in the Special Select Committee.
Dr. Singh, when asked about enforcement of the existing law said he does not agree that it was not properly enforced.
He added that “one has to understand the various elements of an effective anti money laundering institutional architecture.”
According to the Finance Minister, there first needs to be the legislative prerequisites in place which is the 2009 Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act.
This law he said was relatively strong notwithstanding the identification of some deficiencies by the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce (CFATF) recently when it reviewed the law and made recommendations for its strengthening.
Dr. Singh said that with legislation in place, a number of subsequent steps were required to be put in place to establish an effective mechanism, “an effective architecture for fighting money laundering.”
This he said includes the establishment of a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the issuance of guidelines and regulations, the development of institutional capability, the introduction of protocols for identification of suspicious transactions and the appointment of supervisory authorities over the various classes of reporting entities among others.
“If one were to look at the various actions that were taken to establish that institutional architecture, I believe it would be fair to say that quite a lot was achieved,” according to Dr. Singh.
When confronted with the question that no one has been prosecuted to date, despite the architecture that has been put in place, Dr. Singh responded by saying, “this is a process…this is work in progress, there remains more work to be done.”
Dr. Singh said that when CFATF reviewed Guyana, there was a clear acknowledgment of the efforts and accomplishments by the Government of Guyana in developing strong capability to fight money laundering.
The CFATF statement referred to by Dr. Singh, states “Guyana has made efforts to address its deficiencies, however, it has not taken sufficient steps towards improving its AML/CFT compliance regime by failing to approve and implement required legislative reforms.”
Dr. Singh announced too that Government in its quest to effectively tackle money laundering has developed an action plan.
Some aspects of the plan are legislative according to Dr. Singh, “but some are none legislative and it is for that reason we have proceeded apace to implement the legislation.”
Chairperson of the Special Select Committee, Gail Teixeira, who was a part of the panel, in weighing in on the enforcement of the anti money laundering laws and the fact that Guyana has had no prosecutions, said it would be a useful exercise to look at other countries and their enforcement of their anti money laundering laws.
“Obviously there has to be comparison.”
Guyana submitted its most recent report to CFATF at the end of February where it had to state that the Bill is still in the Special Select Committee and is still to be passed.
CFATF had warned that if this was not done, it will report Guyana to the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) for a review and possible international blacklisting.
Guyana is currently blacklisted in the Caribbean Region.
Dr. Singh had cautioned too that because of this blacklisted status, overseas banks are threatening to close accounts belonging to Guyanese and Guyanese businesses.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has vowed that it will not return the Bill to Parliament until its proposed amendments are included.
The Chief Parliamentary Counsel is yet to complete the draft so that it can be included in the Bill.
But the inclusion of the amendments will only mean support at the level of the Committee given that APNU wants the President to assent to a Bill that the Opposition had piloted and passed in the House as well as issue the commencement order for the Local Government Commission.
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