Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon on Friday announced that with Guyana averting further sanctions over its failure to update its anti-money laundering legislation, it had also avoided the administration having need to call for new general elections.
“President [Donald] Ramotar had made it abundantly clear that any decision by FATF to blacklist Guyana because of the parliamentary opposition’s intransigence in enacting FATF compliant AML [Anti-Money Launder-ing] legislation would be one of the factors triggering his resolve to call for general and regional elections,” Luncheon stated as he officially announced that Guyana had once again been able to avert the blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
However, Luncheon said that it would be difficult to say if government was awaiting FATF’s decision before the setting of a date for the next sitting of the National Assembly, given that the AFC’s no-confidence motion, if passed, would also see Guyana going to early elections.
He pointed out that the President’s position on calling elections in wake of a blacklist was an “aged” one. “That pronouncement that the President made about what his resolve would be, that was made quite some time ago and it is an obvious political no-nonsense statement,” he said.
“Who wants to be running a blacklisted economy? So that observation by the President is ageing. That was made even before the no-confidence motion, even before we went into recess, even before the question about when to hold the first post-recess sitting of the National Assembly arose,” Luncheon added.
The Cabinet Secretary pointed out that government was pleased to announce that this country had staved off being blacklisted.
“I am pleased to announce that we have been advised, we have been informed, that the results of those and all other related engagements on this matter, the results are encouraging for Guyana, in that it seems that essentially Guyana has staved off blacklisting and indeed has not been the subject of any decision by FATF of further blacklisting,” Luncheon announced.
“Guyana we are informed, has been provided with time to put its house in order and essentially to conclude its efforts to enact FATF-compliant Anti Money Laundering legislation,” he further stated.
The Government Information Agency (GINA) had reported on Thursday that the stay was due to government’s diligence. GINA reported that Guyana will, however, continue to be subjected to an “ongoing process in improving compliance” to ensure that it discharges its obligations under the Action Plan which was worked out with the Americas Regional Review Group (ARRG) and submitted as Guyana’s action plan.
Earlier this week, the Guyana Government delivered a letter to the FATF committing to remedy gaps in the country’s anti-laundering legislation.
The letter was delivered in Paris, where the FATF was meeting, by Attorney General Anil Nandlall. In his presentation, GINA said, the Attorney General reiterated the country’s commitment to international financial legislation, and reported that an action plan was worked out between Guyana and the ARRG in which certain technical deficiencies were pinpointed in Guyana’s Anti-Money Launder-ing/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime and timeframes were agreed for these deficiencies to be rectified.
GINA said that Nandlall highlighted that a national task force has been established, comprising very high ranking members of government and important stakeholders/agencies of state, and that it is currently reviewing a five-year plan for Guyana’s AML/CFT regime.
Observers had noted that the commitment still requires an agreement between the government and the opposition so that the amended bill can be passed in Parliament. The government and the opposition have haggled on the bill for over two years and an agreement is still to be reached.
