Guyana and the Wider World

The Schedule below summarizes the key features of the strategic guideposts for a way forward presented in the two previous columns.

This week I shall address the two remaining strategic guideposts in designing a road map for the way forward in dealing with money laundering and related challenges in Guyana.

Introduction For the remaining columns in this series on money laundering in Guyana, I shall concentrate on portraying a strategic road map for the way ahead, in light of the current impasse in Guyana’s relations with the Caribbean Financial Action Force (CFATF).

Last week’s column carried a brief description of the current situation of Guyana in regard to the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).

Introduction In the previous two columns the prevailing architecture of global anti money-laundering regulation under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was introduced by way of the seven major groupings of the targeted areas within which this structure is organized.

Introduction Last week’s column provided a brief synopsis of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) international standard.

International standards As indicated in last week’s column, the original publication of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) Forty Recommen-dations took place in 1990.

Introduction As I continue the series on money laundering and looking back on last week’s column, perhaps the main original contribution so far has been putting forward the thesis that there have been three principal drivers pushing money laundering and related concerns to the level of the massive global threat these now represent.

OFCs and tax havens The origins of money-laundering as a global phenomenon are closely tied to the international spread of offshore financial centres (OFCs) and the opportunities these provide for the spread of tax avoidance and evasion; the latter being of course a criminal offence.

Introduction At this point of the ongoing discussion of the money-laundering situation in Guyana, readers would have come to realize that they cannot expect to form an intelligent appreciation of this issue, and as a result the several serious challenges which the country presently faces, without, at the very least, a rudimentary appreciation of the basic contextual issues surrounding this phenomenon.

Introduction This week’s column provides a highly condensed, yet hopefully accurate portrayal of the origins of money laundering, which as we shall observe is a uniquely modern phenomenon.

Introduction In my recent Sunday Stabroek columns I have sought thus far to provide a background for assessing the money laundering situation in Guyana, with specific regard to examining its local, regional, and international regulatory regimes.

Last week the question was tackled: what is money laundering? This week we look at the techniques and circumstances, which give it traction in Guyana and the wider Caricom region.

Introduction The two topics that have dominated national as well as parliamentary debates on Guyana’s political economy in recent months are, namely, the future of the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project and Guyana’s money-laundering legislation in light of its regional and global regulatory obligations.

Conclusion The last topic left to be considered in this rather extended appraisal of the management of Guyana’s public investment programme is its third and fourth phases, namely, project management and implementation and the conduct of ex-post evaluation audits of projects. 

Conclusion Today’s column concludes the discussion of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project (AFHP).

Judging by the numerous requests which I have received from readers to comment on the Hydropower Purchase Agreement (PPA) between GPL and Amaila Falls Hydropower Inc (AFH Inc) this seems to be, by far, the public’s most troubling concern about the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP).

Part 6 Last week’s column indicated that the financing arrangements for the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP), envisaged GPL playing a pivotal two-pronged role.

Part 5 In this week’s column and the next I shall wrap up my discussion of the financing arrangements through which the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) is being executed.

Project finance Last week I had indicated that this week’s column would be devoted to the further elaboration of the financing structure of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project (AFHP).