Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall believes the combined Opposition – A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) – seems prepared to face the effects of the pending blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for Guyana’s delay in passing the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill.
Speaking at an Indian Arrival Day event at Highbury, the Attorney General told the crowd gathered for the event: “We face an Opposition in the National Assembly who is prepared to cause us to be blacklisted, thereby financially and economically estranging us from 190 countries who may sever trade relations with us and affecting our ability to access financing from developmental partners.”
He pointed out that the Government has been unrelenting in its efforts to have the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2013 passed in the National Assembly and enacted into law. However, the Opposition has been equally set to stymie any progress in that regard, but “the Government remains ready, able and willing to lead that struggle”, Nandlall said.
“We can only achieve that by working tirelessly to create a world where all of our people are unshackled from the chains of poverty and exploitation of every kind and where hunger is absent. Our task is, therefore, a perpetual one from which we must never shirk,” said the legal representative of the Government as he explained that momentous task that lies ahead for the Government in developing a better Guyana.
Long-delayed
Nandlall pointed out that as a Government, it is its responsibility to facilitate development to ensure that the ideals and aspirations of Guyana’s people are realised and in particular, those that are still relevant to the development of Guyana.
Presently, the AML/CFT Bill is with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel Cecil Dhujon where it will be finalised before being tabled in the National Assembly, possibly at the next sitting.
The Bill in its current state includes the amendments made at the level of the Special Select Committee where it has spent several months being deliberated on and modified by way of amendments by parliamentarians.
