Dear Editor,
Following my previous letter regarding what seems to be a conflict between the Bank of Guyana (BOG) Supervision Guidelines and policies of some Commercial Banks on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) verification requirements for banking customers, I will further highlight the related implications on expended revenues by the State.
Every citizen should be concerned about the way state resources and assets are utilized. Assets of the state include Land, Buildings, Minerals and Revenue among other things.
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) expended countless millions of dollars to digitize and upgrade the Driver’s Licence data base. The new driver’s licence, which contains special biographic features, was welcomed and seen as modernization in this area. Its anti-counterfeiting features were well publicized and boasted of by the GRA’s Commissioner General.
My Guyana driver’s licence was accepted a few months ago at a certain facility in the USA where only machine readable document holders were allowed access. So the new Guyana driver’s licence has gained international acceptance.
The same does not apply right here in Guyana, where the said licence is issued.
Some commercial banks are rejecting the Guyana’s driver’s licence outright as a means of Identification. They do not recognize it as an authorized Taxpayer Identification numbered (TIN) document issued by the GRA.
Some of the commercial banks are flouting the authorization of the GRA and are in contravention of Bank of Guyana Supervision Guideline No. 13, part 4.2.4.
I am highlighting this disservice by some of these banks as a Guyanese taxpayer, whose revenue went into the state’s upgrade of the Guyana driver’s licence.
Such actions by some of these banks are prejudicial, illegal, and an affront to the State. They are rendering the Guyana Driver’s Licence a White Elephant. They are in effect inferring that it was a waste of revenue and state assets by the Government of Guyana to have upgraded the licensing system and issuance of a carded document.
I trust that the Directors of the BOG, Guyana Association of Bankers (GAB) and Commissioner General of the GRA will collaborate to cause necessary policy amendments to be made so that those errant banks will adapt and thereby create a more compliant friendly environment for banking customers in this country.
Yours faithfully,
Orette Cutting
