So the inevitable has happened. The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) met in Miami last week to review individual countries’ efforts to deal with anti-money laundering and countering of terrorist financing. No doubt, the Guyana situation would have dominated the proceedings since it is yet to pass the relevant amendments to its legislation to bring it in line with the standard recommendations used to evaluate countries’ efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, This was despite several warnings by the CFATF since 2011 of Guyana’s precarious position. At the end of the meeting, the regional body issued a statement calling on its 27 members of the Caribbean Basin Region to consider implementing further counter measures to protect their financial systems from the ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from Guyana.
Both the Government and the Opposition continue to trade blame for this latest development. For the benefit of readers, this article outlines the sequence of events over the years which has led to present state of affairs as regards our anti-money laundering efforts.
Early Attempts to Deal with Money Laundering
Our earliest attempt to dealing with money laundering began in 2000 when the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act was passed in the National Assembly. It was assented to by the President on March 29, 2000. In 2002, we joined the CFATF and in the process of doing so, we have committed ourselves to work collectively with the other members to put in
