Georgetown : President Donald Ramotar has called on the political opposition to put aside partisan interests in dealing with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill that was on May 7, referred to a select committee after A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) argued that its passage was ill-timed.
The passage of the amended legislation is aimed at bringing Guyana in conformity with certain international standards that would save the country from being blacklisted or excluded from important activities.
If the bill is not passed, Guyana will be placed on a list with other non-conforming countries, and would be visited with a regime of sanctions which will include restrictions in the manner in which business is done internationally, especially involving wire transfers of funds. Once placed on that list, it takes an average of approximately seven years to come off, during which time the country would have to go through a series of stringent scrutiny of its procedures used when transacting business across the borders.
Recommendations contained in the Bill emanated from deliberations at the level of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), the body responsible for monitoring the operations of legislation of this type throughout the Caribbean.
Guyana has up to May 27 to subscribe to the international benchmarks, but will be depending on the Special Select Parliamentary Committee’s appraisal.
“It’s a bill that is needed, it’s a law that has to be in sync with other countries’ laws… so I hope that they (opposition) will see that this is a bi-partisan issue and they will support it and we can have it done on time,” President Ramotar told reporters.
The President had made an earlier appeal to the Parliamentary opposition at a financial crimes stakeholders meeting co-sponsored by the diplomatic missions of United States, Britain and the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) on April 17.
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