The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the entity tied directly to oversight of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and which is required to be operational under the anti-money laundering legislation, has been without a director since the end of last year.
Identifying a replacement may also take some time as the required Authority under the Anti-Money Laundering/ Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act (AML/ CFT) has to first be established.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan confirmed to Stabroek News that former director of the FIU Paul Geer’s contract expired at the end of 2015.
“Right now, there is nobody really,” Jordan said, when questioned by Stabroek News about the status of the unit’s director.
“It has been 11 days or so. Steps are being put in place to remedy the situation… as you can appreciate, this is a process that resides in the hands of the Parliament,” he added, while noting that the National Assembly is charged with the responsibility of identifying and appointing the director among other staff.
In the absence of a director of the FIU, there are concerns about SOCU’s operations.
PPP/C MP and former Attorney-General Anil Nandlall told Stabroek News that there is a real reason to express concern. He noted that the anti-money laundering legislative structure “is crippled if the FIU is non-functional and if there no director.”
He noted that even a peripheral review of the legislation would demonstrated to the average reader the importance of the FIU and by extension the director.
“One of the administrative requirements was for us to establish a [SOCU]. The FIU would have fed information and make reports for the purpose of carrying out investigations based on the remit of the [legislation]… and SOCU was established for this singular purpose. It is crystal clear that over the last two weeks the SOCU no longer serves this purpose,” Nandlall stated.
He said SOCU’s remit is now unknown.
“It is engaged in a series of actions and operations wholly unconnected with the [anti-money laundering] apparatus. Therefore, we have another gaping hole in the [anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism] infrastructure,” Nandlall added, while referring to the unit’s involvement in a bungled surveillance operation that ended in a fatal collision along Carifesta Avenue, where three persons were killed, as well as recent actions by the unit in conjunction with the Criminal Investigation Department to perform surveillance and call in for questioning current PPP/C Members of Parliament and former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds.
“The amendments which were done to the AML/CFT Act in 2015 creates a new structure for the FIU as well as it creates a wholly new process by which that structure will be staffed. For example, it creates an Authority and it outlines how the authority will function vis-à-vis the FIU and it vests in the Authority the power to fill the offices within the FIU,” Nandlall noted.
He added that since AML/CFT Act came into being, it immediately changed the prior system. However, little was done at the level of the Parliament to start the process by which the AML/CFT Authority would be established.
“We have an AML/CFT structure in place that is bereft of an FIU or its officers. This, I fear, will put us in further default. So, while we may be passing laws to effect recommendations we are retrograding the AML/CFT infrastructure which the law sets up and now have a gaping hole in that infrastructure,” he added.
At a press conference held at Freedom House on Wednesday, PPP/C MP Gail Teixeira noted that since the FIU was currently “headless,” an “extraordinarily dangerous hiatus has been created.”
Teixeira, the opposition Chief Whip, said the establishment of the AML/CFT Authority needed to be a priority for Parliament’s Committee on Appointments. The committee first met on December 23 last year but she noted that the presence of the government side has been sparse and as a result nothing concrete could be decided upon.
Guyana will be required to report to the FATF at its May, 2016 plenary.
