Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall yesterday said that the government will initiate measures to take the Anti-Money Launder-ing Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Amendment Bill back to the National Assembly.
The AML/CFT Amend-ment Bill was defeated by the combined votes of A Party for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) earlier this month ahead of Guyana’s assessment by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).
As a result, last week Guyana was found insufficiently compliant by CFATF which asked its member states to consider counter measures against Guyana. Nandlall said yesterday that he was unsure what the specific consequences will be because of the language used by the body, but that CFATF will be writing Guyana shortly to clarify.
However, he said that a US bank has discontinued its relationship with Guyana because of the recent development, and a bank from Trinidad and Tobago had considered similar actions earlier this year after it perceived that Guyana had already been blacklisted.
At any rate, Guyana has now been given until May 2014, to take the steps necessary to satisfy CFATF’s requirements, after failing to meet deadlines in May, August and again this month.
Nevertheless, the pro-cess of getting the AML/ CFT Amendment Bill passed cannot commence unless it is taken back to the National Assembly to be deliberated on.
Nandlall, during a PPP/C press conference yesterday afternoon, told reporters that government will seek to initiate the process of getting the Bill back into the House. This was after he became aware of the opposition’s statements that they are open to suspending the Standing Orders (SOs) of the National Assembly to allow the Bill to be taken back.
When Stabroek News spoke to Opposition Leader David Granger last week he indicated that the APNU would agree with government to take the bill back on condition that it is recommitted to the committee level for further consideration. The APNU, since the bill was committed to the committee level earlier this year, has been adamant that the bill was insufficient as proposed by the government and needed to be amended further so as to give the government a “good bill.”
It was for this reason that the APNU, not heeding the urges of government, insisted on taking its time with the bill. The AFC has also indicated its willingness to have the bill taken back to the National Assembly for further consideration but last week the party’s Leader Khemraj Ramjattan said the AFC’s willingness to have the bill returned should not be mistaken for a commitment to vote for it to be passed without government’s movement on the People’s Procurement Commission (PPC).
Ramjattan has said that though he does not expect the process to be complete overnight, if the government would move to nominate its members to the PPC, have their names approved by the National Assembly, and provide funds for the commission to function the AFC would be more than happy to support the AML/CFT Amendment Bill.
Yesterday though, Nandlall reiterated the government’s position that the bill should not be tied to the PPC, and added that even if they were to entertain the AFC’s call for the commission to be set up, the timeframe, before the next Plenary, is too short.
Asked what steps government intends to take will see the bill taken back to the National Assembly by the December 14, sitting Nandlall said the bill will be taken back at the soonest convenience.
Meanwhile, he cautioned that though the next CFTAF Plenary will take place in May, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will hold meetings in February and can decide to schedule Guyana to be reviewed. This process, he said, can last several years “while Guyana remains blacklisted.” The minister might be dreading having to explain to the FATF why the bill has not yet been passed, especially since he says that he could give the CFATF no good explanation as to why the legislation had not yet been passed.
