Money laundering deadline missed again – Guyana could face sanctions

Today (Thursday) is the deadline when Guyana should have submitted its updated anti-money laundering act to be in compliance with the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), but with no parliamentary consensus and the bill stuck at a select committee, government said the country is now exposed to international sanctions.
The CFATF had given Guyana up to August 22 after it failed to reach an earlier deadline. To this end, the country now stands to face serious international sanctions from the CFATF.
The CFATF upon receiving the update from Guyana would have sought to remedy the deficiencies that were uncovered in Guyana’s Anti-money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism Act.
According to Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon at his weekly post-cabinet briefing on Wednesday, “Guyana is due to submit the CFATF multilateral evaluation mechanism update, and this is to be done by August 22, 2013; the update advises on action that have been taken by the country to address the recommendations made by Guyana’s evaluators as they sought to remedy the deficiencies.”
Dr Luncheon said the move by the opposition members within the parliamentary select committee to defer the completion of the work on the bill was a planned one, despite the government parliamentarians’ warning and pleas to have the bill reviewed during the last sitting.
However, the considerations were pushed back to the end of the recess when the House meets again in October. Dr Luncheon said the opposition members on the committee turned out in full force and essentially to vote for the adjournment of the bill.
“That deadline was much advertised and one can only assume that the act by the parliamentary opposition was deliberate and one that was planned to ensure that Guyana would not meet the deadline,” he added.
He said even though the parliamentary opposition was aware of the consequences on the health and operations of Guyana’s financial and banking system if the deadline was missed, it again showed it cared less about the country.
Apart from facing international sanctions, Guyana’s financial sector will now be seen as weak and international monetary institutions will either withdraw its partnerships with Guyana, or decline to make any kinds of investment in the country.
Also, customers will now be required to pay more for banking services, with local banks struggling to process foreign incoming and outgoing transactions.
Banks in Guyana will also be monitored closely by the few institutions that agree to work with Guyana and the entire financial system will be moving at snail’s pace, with the strict guidelines, monitoring and overseeing of transactions.
Guyana on May 27 failed to meet the first deadline given by the CFATF after the opposition announced its non-support of the critical legislation.
The country was granted an extended deadline after Legal Affairs Minister and Attorney General Anil Nandlall requested an extension at a CFATF meeting in June.