The Government sees the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) Bill as a matter of national importance, and has committed to giving the bill its highest priority because of its fundamental importance.
Government is set to re-table the bill, at the December 12, sitting of the National Assembly.
Defeating the bill is not defeating the Government, but instead the national interest of the country, was the opinion of the Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall.
“Defeating this bill is executing an onslaught on the welfare and wellbeing of every single Guyanese including themselves (Opposition) and their supporters. So if they feel that defeating this bill is defeating the Government that is absolutely wrong,” the Minister stated during a recent edition of ‘Political Scope’ on the National Communications Network (NCN). He said that Government does not see any alternative, but to persevere to have the legislation passed, hence the re-tabling of the amended bill that was defeated at the last sitting, after a third reading, causing Guyana to be blacklisted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).
“We took that decision (to re-table the bill), very conscious of the fact that because we do not control a majority in the Parliament. Once we lay that bill in the Parliament again, we would lose control of it. Whether it is sent to the select committee, whether it is passed in the form that we present it, whether it is amended, whether those amendments satisfy the requirements of CFATF, and are in accordance with the recommendations of CFATF, whether the bill is passed by the National Assembly within the time prescribed, are all matters that will be left to the Opposition to determine,” Minister Nandlall pointed out.
here is a technical hurdle, in that the standing orders in the current construct of Parliament prohibit a bill from being re-tabled after the bill was rejected by the National Assembly. In fact the relevant standing order says after a bill is defeated at its second reading then it cannot be brought back within the same session of that parliament.
The difficulty that Government confronted was that the bill was not defeated at the second reading, but after it was read a third time. After a third reading of a bill in the normal circumstances in every Parliament in the Commonwealth, passing of the bill and receiving the support of the bill are almost perfunctory.
The Legal Affairs Minister explained that fortunately there is a standing order which allows the National Assembly to suspend all other standing orders, but obviously that will require the support of the Opposition. Minister Nandlall said that government is prepared for this and as such “at a different level will engage the Opposition and attempt to solicit their support.”
“How successful Government’s efforts are going to be are left to be seen, but the government wants the nation to be very clear, on the fact, that the Government is doing everything to put this bill back in the National Assembly,” he said.
Minister Nandlall explained that if Guyana is unable to meet the CFATF plenary meeting in May 2014, then the body will hand Guyana over to the Financial Action Task Force for the International Cooperation Review Group’s (ICRG) evaluation to begin.
Minister Nandlall said that the consequences of the present blacklisting of Guyana has not yet sunk in as the country is still to feel the consequences. He believes that in the next month or so the impacts would be felt.
He explained that the ICRG review process is critical in that, “First of all there are officials who will come to Guyana and physically examine the entire financial infrastructure. Then they will make a whole series of recommendations, all of which will have to be complied with, because the rule is that you have to enjoy 100 percent compliance before you are removed from the ICRG process,” he said.
