Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall has describ-ed a recent meeting with the Americas Regional Review Group (ARRG) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as fruitful and constructive.
Nandlall led a Guyana government delegation to a meeting with the ARRG in Miami last Monday, in wake of a targeted review underway due to the country’s failure to amend its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) legislation to meet international standards recommended by the FATF.
According to a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) report, Guyana’s position at the engagement was that the country is in the process of putting in place alternatives to address the technical deficiencies in its existing legal and financial legislative architecture for the FATF’s assessment.
“Were we able to pass the bill then we would not have had to go through this process. But because we did not pass that bill, we now have to look at alternative mechanisms to satisfy the technical requirements,” Nandlall was quoted as saying by GINA.
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) amendment bill remains stalled in the National Assembly due to government’s unwillingness to meet preconditions set out by the parliamentary opposition for its support, which is crucial for the passage of the legislation. The opposition’s demands include the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission as well as the assent of previously rejected bills passed by the National Assembly.
FATF has appointed a special body comprising representatives from the Americas to work with Guyana for the purpose of making a presentation of Guyana’s case to the FATF plenary meeting, scheduled for October 18 to 24 in Paris.
The GINA report said the high-level team will send its work plan to Guyana along with other issues that they may identify for addressing for consideration by FATF. During the meeting with the AARG, some of the proposals put forward by Guyana as part of the work plan, were also discussed, it added.
The final report that will be prepared by Guyana under the supervision of the AARG will be Guyana’s case to FATF at its October plenary.
According to GINA, Nandlall described the process as a “work in progress” but noted that the engagement with the AARG was fruitful and constructive.
After the engagement, Guyana was due to receive a comprehensive response from the AARG, which was expected to document the details of the discussions with recommendations of what it would like to see done in preparing the final report which will be taken to Paris.
However, prior to the plenary, Guyana is expected to give an undertaking in writing either from the Attorney General or President Donald Ramotar himself as to when the country will complete the third round of reviews.
The GINA report said Guyana is the only country that is “so technically deficient in terms of its financial crimes legislative framework in the Western Hemisphere.” All of the other FATF member-countries are now concluding their fourth round of examinations, it added.
“We are still to graduate from the third round because of the non-passage of that Anti-Money Laundering bill,” Nandlall was quoted as saying.
