Gov’t awaiting PPP/C entry into Parliament to set up anti-laundering authority –Trotman

The mandated Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-ing the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Authority, which is to be named by the National Assembly to appoint members of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), is yet be established.

Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman told reporters that the Authority will not be voted on in the absence of the PPP/C in the National Assembly.

He said that it would be undemocratic to not seek the opinions of the opposition. “Parliament has no opposition up to now. We wouldn’t want to proceed on many of these things without involvement of the opposition,” he stated.

The PPP/C has since said it will begin attending parliament from budget day, August 10.

He said for now the FIU was operating as it has prior to the AML/CFT Act being signed into legislation, although he added that he did not expect this to continue for long.

The Act was gazetted on July 10th after being passed in the legislature on June 27th after a three-year impasse between the then opposition APNU and AFC and the former PPP/C administration over compliance with international requirements.

Under the Act, the Authority will comprise of 10 persons that have to be given approval by the National Assembly, and it will in turn appoint the Director and Deputy Director of the FIU along with the lawyer and accountant of the unit.

In addition, the Com-missioner of Police, the Head of the Serious Organised Crime Unit, the Director of Public Prosecu-tions, the Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, the Solicitor-General, the Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) and the Chairman of the Government Board of the Deeds and Commercial Registry Authority will be ex-officio members of the Authority.

Former Attorney-General Anil Nandlall furiously opposed the AML/ CFT (Amendment) Bill, while arguing that the Authority established under the legislation would comprise of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), making it prone to contamination.

Prior to the Act being passed, Nandlall had stated that the APNU+AFC amendments to the 2013 bill seeking to have the Director and staff of the FIU appointed by politicians in the National Assembly went against the warning about PEPs by the global watchdog group, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Nandlall argued that “what they have done in this bill is to take politically exposed persons who are MPs and make them the appointing authority for the FIU.”

Nandlall, who had attended several international meetings on the anti-money laundering law, said that the FATF had prepared a manual specifically pronouncing on what a PEP was and how the AML/ CFT legislation needed to be insulated from influence. Reading from the manual, Nandlall defined a PEP as “an individual who is or has been entrusted with the prominent public function. Due to their position and influence it is recognised that many PEPs are in a position that can potentially be abused for the purposes of committing money laundering offences and related predicated offences relating to corruption and bribery as well as conducting activities related to terrorist financing. This has been confirmed by analysis and case studies.”