Chartered accounting firm Ram & McRae says the most significant impact from yesterday’s ruling by the CFATF on Guyana’s anti-laundering laws will be on time sensitive transactions as more questions will be raised about the source and destination of funds.
The firm cautioned against panic and alarm over the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s (CFATF) finding of deficiencies in Guyana’s Anti-Money laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism legislation and its recommendation that the 29 members of the group from the Caribbean Basin consider steps to protect their financial systems from risks emanating from Guyana.
Ram and McRae said that prior to this week’s Bahamas meeting of the CFATF, “sentiment seemed in favour of blacklisting Guyana which would result in dire and catastrophic consequences. The language from the meeting was more measured and fell far short of the predictions”.
Government had insisted prior to the meeting that Guyana would be blacklisted for failure to pass the required legislative amendments by November 18 and its representatives yesterday insisted that Guyana has been blacklisted. Analysts have posited that the language coming out of the meeting falls short of blacklisting Guyana.
Ram and McRae said “We do not anticipate that countries will stop doing business with Guyana. We believe however that there will be consequences for businesses and individuals alike as other countries review the framework within which transactions are carried on with Guyana. The most significant impact will be on time sensitive transactions as more questions are raised about the source and destination of funds and the purpose and validity of transactions which could ultimately translate into increased costs and possibly lost business opportunities.
“We therefore recommend that in undertaking transactions, businesses and individuals should allow for some delays in the processing of both inbound and outbound transactions. We further recommend that an additional period of one week be allowed for any additional enquiries and investigations. In particular businesses and individuals must maintain adequate records and a reliable paper trail of their transactions.
“Ram & McRae takes this opportunity to call on the country’s political leaders both inside and outside of the National Assembly to address the money-laundering and related systemic issues that continue to undermine the integrity of Guyana’s financial system, fair trading and public trust and international confidence.”
CFATF has been in dialogue with the Guyana Government for a number of years on deficiencies in the AML/CFT law but its prescriptions were not acted upon by the Jagdeo administration. Warnings at the end of last year by the CFATF saw the government placing pressure this year on the opposition to support the rapid passage of legislative amendments. The main opposition grouping, APNU has however said that the proposed amendment bill is deficient and more work needs to be done on it.
