Members of the opposition want government to properly account for the lack of output by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) over the years it has been active and called government’s non-submission of annual reports for years prior to 2011 disdainful of the principles of transparency and accountability.
The report for 2011, tabled together with the report for 2012 at the last sitting of the National Assembly two Thursdays ago, pointed out that up to the start of 2011 the FIU had only two employees – its Director Paul Geer and another employee said to be an administrative assistant. It was only in the following year that two more persons were added to the payroll and its budget increased.
The reports were tabled on the same day that the Anti-Money Laundering Bill and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism Bill met its demise on the floor of the House.
The reports stated that three employees were hired in 2011 – a financial analyst in April of 2011, a database administrator in June 2011 and a legal advisor in September 2011. The reports said that whereas the budget of the FIU was $29.1 million in 2011, it ballooned to $55 million in 2012 with the bulk of the additional expenditure channelled to employment costs.
In 2011, the employment cost was $16.7 million, while in 2012 it was more than double – $34.3 million. There was also further hiring in 2012. A second financial analyst was hired on March 1, 2012. So whereas prior to 2011 there was no financial analyst, by March 2012 – following the growing international scrutiny – there were two.
Leader of the Alliance for Change Khemraj Ramjattan said that his party will be seeking answers as to the missing reports of the FIU, prior to 2011.
“The non-compliance of presenting annual reports [by the FIU] reveals the disrespect this government has for its National Assembly and the general disdain it treats with the principles of transparency and accountability,” said Ramjattan.
He said too that it is also is a serious indictment on the persons in charge of the FIU whose task it is to ensure these reports are done in a timely manner. “If the personnel in the FIU cannot work out the arrangements for annual reports, I do not believe that they will confidently work on reporting of suspicious transactions. As we have said before, the whole set up is one big deliberate farce and charade just to give the public and the CFATF the impression that this government is doing something about money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism,” he said. “The government has done nothing and will continue to do nothing. The AFC indeed will request the reports for the missing years in the next parliamentary sitting if the question is allowed,” said Ramjattan.
“The AFC will hope that the Private Sector Commission, through [Chairman Ron Webster] and [member] Gerry Gouveia, will get all their business organisations to sign on to a petition to the National Assembly setting out the implications of [this development] which obviously has scarred and sullied their PPP Government,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the main opposition A Partnership for National Unity, Carl Greenidge said that government must explain the gap in the reports from the time the FIU was established to 2011. “But the main concern was the extent to which the posts that were filled met the technical requirements. It is not my intention to criticise the persons recruited but they are required to be highly qualified in accounting, financing, and economics. They also need to have investigative and analytical skills,” said Greenidge. “I don’t see that they had attempted to recruit any such people,” he said.
Chairman of the Governance and Security Committee of the Private Sector Commission Gerry Gouveia said that while the slow pace of submissions of annual reports and the lack of submissions altogether for years prior to 2011 are not good signs, he would be more concerned about the operational side of the FIU and whether they are doing what is required by the Act.
“More significant to me is whether they are operating as required,” said Gouveia. “I would like to know the level and extent of their operational capability. But non-submission of reports is not a good sign,” he said.
With regards to the level of staffing at the beginning of 2011, Gouveia said that the FIU is not meant to be a stand alone agency and thus its staffing strength does not have to be extravagant.
“The FIU is meant to work along with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), the commercial banks, money transfer services and I believe cambios in tracking suspicious transactions and looking for indicators on which to pounce.
“While I believe that having just two staff members is pushing it, in an age of technology it is a matter of looking for anomalies and going after them,” Gouveia said.
