Georgetown : February 28 deadline for Guyana to get its act together with respect to the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill.
Yesterday the Government made a last pitch to both Opposition Parties; re-emphasising the urgent need for the Bill to be passed; however, the result of that engagement has left the country with very little hope of meeting the crucial deadline.
A press conference was called slast night, where President Donald Ramotar lamented that the “blackmail type politics” continue with full force, and urged that patriotism, and putting the welfare of Guyanese first are now needed.
The ANPU remains unmoved from their position that their proposed amendments must be taken on board even though they were cautioned by no less a person than the Financial Adviser and Assessor from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), Roger Hernandez that this move could result in aspects of the CFATF-compliant Act of 2009, becoming non-compliant.
With regards to the Alliance For Change (AFC), the President said that public records will show that for the past 10 months they have made it clear that they had no problems with the Bill, and that their only demand was the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC).
At yesterday’s meeting however, they shifted gear and are now calling for the adoption of the position taken by the APNU, including the passage of the risky amendments. The APNU is also insisting that the President affixes his assent to the non-assented Bills.
President Ramotar said that he informed both Parties that the Bill as currently before the House is in compliance with the standards and recommendations of the CFATF and its parent body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). As such, the passage of the Bill should be supported rather than exposing the country to the perils of international blacklisting.
He also reiterated his Government’s readiness to set up the joint commission, which came out of previous discussions weeks ago, to examine the non-assented Bills. With regards to the AFC and the PPC, the Head of State gave a commitment to ensure that this would be done by tomorrow morning, but maintained that if the Government is going to be held accountable its ‘no objection’ role must be preserved.
The power of Cabinet to issue ‘objection’ or ‘no objection’ merely affords another layer of oversight by the Government which has a fiduciary responsibility.
“They wanted me to give them all of the assurances that they want but refused to mention to me what concessions they were willing to make on the amendments to the Bill that they have…they refuse to say how they are ready to modify their amendments to meet CFATF standards,” President Ramotar said.
Meanwhile, Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Juan Edghill who is also a member of the parliamentary committee to which the Bill has been referred, reminded that there is absolutely no quarrel between the Government and the two Opposition Parties with regards to the pre-February 2012 recommendations of the CFATF.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall said that the Opposition seems to be operating on the premise that this is the Government’s Bill, and therefore if it is not passed, then the Government will lose something, and as such, they are trying to extract leverage and have taken a position of denying what CFATF’s Adviser Hernandez has said.
“This Bill has to be passed because it is important to Guyana and one would expect that every national leader will see the importance of this Bill. That concept of national importance of this Bill is lost on the Opposition,” the AG stressed.
With regards to the Opposition’s demand for their Bills to be assented to, Minister Nandlall reiterated that presidential assent to the Bills in question was withheld on the basis of their unconstitutional provisions and reversing this action will expose the presidency in terms of condoning unconstitutionality.
He said that the positions taken by the Opposition are incapable of finding acceptance with any reasonable grouping of people.
Speaking on APNU’s proposed amendments, Minister Nandlall said that Chief Parliamentary Counsel, Cecil Durjohn and his Deputy who are both well-acquainted with the models and principles that govern legislation of this type, have been unable to put into writing what has been presented to them.
“In accordance to their understanding and training, it is offensive to the regime promulgated by the CFATF regionally,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Ramotar refuted accusations made by APNU MP, Rupert Roopnarine that the Government is willfully using the ALM/CFT Bill and its looming deadline to create hysteria.
He said that the Government’s efforts at diplomacy and its successful appeals for extensions given its unique situation are being used against it to peddle these accusations.
“We will continue to battle for Guyana, we will continue to argue our case and we do that knowing that when or if we succeed we will be lampooned for creating hysteria…we have no problems passing the Bill as it stand…let us pass what we know CFATF has deemed to be compliant…,” the President said.
The APNU’s proposed amendment that calls for the appointment of the FIU to be done by the National Assembly as opposed to the Finance Minister is another area that parliamentary counsels are finding difficult to translate into the Bill because it changes the model of the FIU which has serious ramifications.
Minister Nandlall said that, “if you change the model of the FIU, then you are interfering with, and are liable to be in contravention of foundational principles of the FIU such as autonomy, independence, conflict of interest and insulation from a political process. If you make it ‘appointable’ by 65 members of a Parliament who are politicians then you are making the FIU a product of a political process and that is in violation of FATF and CFATF’s guidelines and regulations.”
The National Assembly is schedule to sit tomorrow while the deadline for the submission of Guyana’s follow-up report and its amended Bill to the CFATF is the day after (February 28).
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