Roseau, Dominica.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he will be writing to the French government to seek clarification on reports in the Agence France Press (AFP) that Dominica has been blacklisted by France.
He said the news had taken the government by shock.
“It has taken us by total shock and surprise of that news item coming out of Paris.We believe that there is no basis and justification for that action, if it were to be true. Because the French has never sent any advisory to Dominica raising concerns about inadequacies of our legislation to address the issues pointed out in the media release", told the media.
French officials said on Monday that Dominican banks and those from other countries on the list will be banned from distributing development funds from France, according to a report.
They say the move is justified because there is a lack of transparency in Dominica and the other nations on the list. They also pointed out that poor and developing nations are the main victims of fraud.
However Prime Minister Skerrit government has not yet received any formal communication from France on the matter.
“I contacted the French embassy yesterday and they had no formal communication from its government in Paris on this. It is a report from the media out in Paris. I intend to write to the government of France, seeking clarification on this matter. Because France has never written to us, emailed us, called us on any concerns that they have with respect to Dominica,” he said.
Skerrit said Dominica has implemented a number of measures to the satisfaction of its peers in respect to efforts to combat money laundering and improving the banking system in Dominica.
“We know our banking system is supervised by the ECCB and people who do business in our banks will tell you of the rigorous processes in so far as monies coming into the banks and transactions foreign exchange,” he added.
The Prime Minister said recent laws pertaining to money laundering recently were part of government’s commitment to the international financial community.
“I believe that, if the French Government hase taken a decision like that, they would have taken such decision with total ignorance of what this country and this government has done in addressing issues in ensuring that we have a well structured and legislated financial environment and jurisdiction in Dominica,” he stated.
Skerrit said government has also signed a sharing of information with French government, “so if there were issues relating to information, under this agreement, they could seek information on anybody…”.
He admitted however, that France has black listed other countries without informing them.
“France did that to Barbados when (Former Prime Minister) Nicholas Sarkozy announced at G8 Summit which was in a large measure ill informed because the British Government came out the following week and said they had no issues with the financial services in Barbados..,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the nation will be informed when the French government makes an official statement on the matter.
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