…staffers say Guyana has exited third round, deficiencies in legislation cured
Officials working on Guyana Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Taskforce have expressed alarm at a statement by the Attorney General chambers indicating that this country was still stuck in the third round of the assessment and that deficiencies in its legislations were a major cause of concern.
In a press release on Tuesday Attorney General Anil Nandlall disclosed that he had met with the Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Matthew Langevine, his Deputy, Ms. Alicia Williams, and the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Officer within the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Mr. Rommel St. Hill, at the Attorney General’s Chambers.
Nandlall said the team provided him with a status update on Guyana’s AML/CTF progress, in particular, outlining the country’s outstanding obligations under the various international monitoring agencies. Nandlall said in his release that it was disclosed that apart from Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas, Guyana, along with the rest of the Caribbean remains subject to the third round of mutual evaluation. “The Team reported that the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce (CFATF) has indicated that there are serious deficiencies in Guyana’s legislative network because of deficient legislation enacted under the previous Administration. The Team also related that Guyana’s Risk Assessment for the year 2020, is currently under preparation and identified a number of weaknesses in the existing apparatus,” the release stated. It added, ”The Attorney General committed to an immediate review of the entire legislative scheme and a comprehensive overview of the existing apparatus with a view of addressing the weakness and deficiencies. The Attorney General will be meeting with the National Co-ordination Committee (NCC) of AML/CFT, shortly to begin an institutionalised collaboration.
Inaccurate
However, someone close to the meeting told Village Voice that the statement issued by the chamber is grossly inaccurate as this was not the report given to the AG. “We certainly could not have told him that knowing that Guyana has exited the third round. We couldn’t say legislation deficient because effective legislation are crucial to exiting the third round, so somebody misrepresented our update,” the source said.
“We’re no longer in the Third Round. And I am not aware that there are legislative deficiencies in the AML/CFT legislation,” another source close to the meeting disclosed. “I thought those deficiencies were cured and that’s how Guyana was no longer blacklisted and was able to successfully exit the Third Round. If the legislation had such serious deficiencies, we would not have successfully exited the Third Round,” the source added. The official said Guyana is due to undergo the 4th Round of evaluation in 2023. Contacted for a comment former AG, Basil Williams said that Nandlall has started very early with his posturing. “But he has to be careful, you cannot go about lying to the nation like this.” Williams said. Williams reminded that when the APNU+AFC Government took office in 2015 Guyanese blacklisted and it was due to the hard work of the administration and the AML/CFT team that helped lift the country off the list. “So this statement by the AG is misleading and very dangerous,” Williams said.
Back in 2016 while addressing the National Assembly, Williams had reported that Guyana had made significant progress in correcting the deficiencies within its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime in keeping with the standards established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), but the country must now be cognisant of the challenges that exist in the Fourth Round of Mutual Evaluations. “Exiting the FATF ICRG process and both the CFATF follow-up and CFATF ICRG processes all in one year is definitely a great achievement for Guyana,” the then Attorney General said, as he updated the National Assembly on “Guyana’s progress under the 3rd Mutual Evaluation.”
Financial institutions in Guyana, the Legal Affairs Minister said, can now conduct their transactions with ease as a result of the milestone achievement. However, he noted that the country has been warned by the regional and international financial watchdogs. “Guyana was however warned by both the FATF and CFATF to be cognisant of the fact that exiting the third round means that we are now in the 4th Round of Mutual Evaluations with which comes tremendous challenges,” he said.
Under the fourth round, countries are assessed for technical compliance with the FATF-revised 40 recommendations, as well as the level of effectiveness of its AML/CFT system. “This, therefore, means that we still have a lot of work to do,” the Legal Affairs Minister had told the House.
Williams recalled that it was in May 2011 that Guyana’s 3rd Round of Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) was adopted by the CFATF Council of Ministers. The report was subsequently published on July 25, 2011. As a result of the country’s overall level of compliance with the FATF 40+9 recommendations, Guyana was placed in expedited follow-up at the CFATF May 2011 plenary and was required to report under the CFATF follow-up process every plenary. Between May 2011 and November 2016, CFATF published 11 follow-up reports on Guyana. Guyana was finally removed from the CFATF follow-up process at a CFATF plenary held in the Turks and Caicos Islands from November 2-10, 2016.
