As Guyana prepares for its Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) assessment later this year, Attorney General Anil Nandlall says that three draft pieces of legislation aiming to strengthen this country’s regulatory architecture will soon be presented to the National Assembly.
The draft legislation comes even as a team representative of various agencies in the country is in Trinidad and Tobago to participate in the 56th Plenary and Working Group Meetings, which the Attorney General believes will give them an opportunity not only to interact with assessors, but have a first-hand opportunity to see how assessments are done.
Guyana’s team includes senior representatives from the Bank of Guyana, Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Guyana Revenue Authority, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Special Organised Crime Unit, Guyana Gold Board, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, and Guyana Securities Council.
“Over the past two years, Guyana has been preparing its financial system for this assessment. This involved strengthening of the entire Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework, incorporating updated recommendations coming from the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) and CFATF as well as enacting new legislation to address identified deficiencies,” Nandall told the Stabroek News yesterday when contacted.
He listed the Anti-Money Laundering Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2023; the Compliance Commission Bill 2023 and the Real Estate Agents and Brokers Bill 2023, as the three respective draft Bills to be laid soon.
Nandlall said that the Government of Guyana is committed to doing all that is required to ensure that we have a robust, transparent and accountable legal and administrative AML/CFT framework, one that could withstand objective professional scrutiny.
It is to this end, he said that government has been “consulting with agencies and personnel across the region and soliciting their guidance and assistance.
“We are leaving no stone unturned. This process will continue in order to ensure that Guyana’s impending assessment is successful,” he added.
Giving an insight to the purposes of the proposed legislation, he explained the AMLCTF Amendment bill is intended to update the principal, correct identified deficiencies as well as add new processes which were not adequately provided for before.
“In this regard, the Attorney General’s Cham-bers and Ministry of Legal Affairs collaborated with the Regional Security System’s (RSS) Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) and adopted certain key and critical recommendations which the RSS ARU made to improve our forfeiture and asset recovery capabilities in the legislation,” Nandlall stated.
He continued, “Related recommendations were also received from the judiciary after they participated in a symposium on forfeiture of assets from proceeds of crime conducted earlier this year by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), United States at the Marriott Hotel, Georgetown.”
As it relates to the Compliance Commission Bill, he stressed that it was crucial to the enhancement of the current AML/CFT framework. “It creates a permanent commission that will act as a supervisory authority over a number of sectors within the financial landscape that are currently unsupervised as there exists no appropriate authority to do so in the current matrix,” the Attorney General contended.
As the high demand for real estate here increases, a direct result of the booming oil and gas sector, Nandlall said that the Real Estate Agents and Brokers Bill 2023 will provide a regulatory framework for a sector that has long had a gap.
“The real estate sector has long been identified as a sector to which millions of dollars pass through annually without the type of regulatory framework in place that is required. This gap in Guyana’s framework has been flagged as a key and critical deficiency which must be addressed. This Bill is intended to fill this void,” he said.
When Nandlall met with representatives of the Realtors Association of Guyana and the Guyana Association of Real Estate Professionals earlier this month, he had underscored the need for necessary legislation.
He had explained to the group that Guyana’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism framework was slated to undergo its fourth round of mutual evaluation in September by the CFATF and FATF, and the real estate sector had been identified as one of the areas where a regulatory framework was needed.
“The Bill will provide the requisite accountable and transparent legal framework in which real estate agents will operate and by which their transactions will be governed…,” he had said.
Nandlall had also explained that although the Bill provides for the sector to be as self-regulatory as possible, it incorporates a structure that brings together the government, the private sector, and real estate operators. It addresses the licensing of realtors, qualifications required, ethical rules governing transactions, disciplinary procedures, the establishment of a governing authority, and creates offences for non-compliance, among others.
Further, the Bill was drafted after consultation with the local real estate bodies and takes into consideration the industry’s best practices and international standards. The AG invited comments from local real estate bodies on how the draft might be improved and interested parties have two weeks to send their comments in writing. He also assured that he is open to meeting with the agents again after the comments are received.
Nandlall said significant development that will boost Guyana’s credentials is the fact that it has applied for membership with the Egmont Group. “It will be recalled that legislation was passed to make this possible a few months ago. Guyana’s application will soon be considered and hopefully granted,” the Attorney General said.
In April of this year, the heads of two regional FIUs were here for a site visit on Guyana’s application to join the Egmont Group, an association of FIUs.
The Egmont Group facilitates and prompts the exchange of information among member FIUs and it would be important for Guyana to join as laundering and other financial crimes could be tackled more effectively.
The group also provides FIUs with a platform to securely exchange expertise and financial intelligence to tackle money laundering, terrorist financing and associated crimes.
For a number of years Guyana has spoken about joining the group but this has not been achieved.
