Georgetown : The Parliamentary Select Committee for the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) Amendment bill met again yesterday, but the meeting bore no fruit as the A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) proposed amendments continue to be a major hindrance on the way forward for the passage of the bill.
Minster of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Anil Nandlall updating the Government Information Agency said yet again, the Chief Parliamentary Counsel Mr. Cecil Durjohn was unable to complete and submit the drafted amendments, through no fault of his.
According to Minister Nandlall, Durjohn informed him that he was unable to complete the task of reducing the proposal given by the APNU members into legislative form, but noted that he has made some headway.
Some of the challenges faced by Durjohn includes being able to pinpoint legislation other than the Principal Act which the proposal can possibly conflict with, since there are already provisions in the law which permit persons to freely move around with a large amount of cash.
“You are authorising agencies of the state to detain people’s money on mere suspicions without probable cause and due process, which is unconstitutional, then you have the CFATF guidelines to follow to ensure that what they are drafting do not run afoul with those guidelines and that is what is being done,” Minister Nandlall said.
He pointed out that Durjohn has humbly requested more time to complete his work and has also indicated that what may be presented to the committee may not be verbatim what APNU requested.
“He has to draft in accordance with the law and CFATF guidelines. He can’t draft laws that will collide with the guidelines, principles of CFAT, he would have met with the CFATF and he has all the manuals and those of the United Nations Security Council”.
In addition, the APNU proposal on the appointment of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is also posing some amount of difficulty in terms of drafting.
Meanwhile the meeting was adjourned for next Monday when it is expected that the draft proposals would be handed over to the committee.
