Attorney General Basil Williams is currently in Jamaica where he is updating the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) on Guyana’s compliance with the outstanding recommendations to the anti-money laundering legislation.
Williams will be in Jamaica until Jun 8. He told Stabroek News last Friday that this CFATF meeting is to “confirm that Guyana has completed everything” under the follow-up process with CFTAF.
He said he will also be meeting with the Americas Region Review Group’s (ARRG) on the margins of that conference to deal with the action plan which will come up in the FATF plenary to be held in Korea later this month.
Reading from a prepared statement moments earlier during a press conference, Williams said that Guyana is set to exit both the CFATF and FATF regimes. This, he said, comes a year after a change in government.
He said that in relation to Guyana’s Tenth Follow-Up Report dated June 1, 2016 CFATF has concluded, “These statues fully address the legislative amendments required…in the outstanding core and key recommendations. Guyana has significantly improved its overall level of compliance and most importantly Guyana has fully addressed the core and key recommendations. While Guyana satisfies the criteria for application to exit the follow-up process, it is still in the FATF /ICRG process which it needs to complete first.”
Williams explained that CFAFT’s position is that even though the government on its first effort in the follow-up process qualifies to apply to exit it, “Guyana must first exit the FATF /ICRG process… the Guyana Government is confident it can also exit the FATF/ICRG process having fully addressed all eight of the recommendations in its Action Plan agreed with the FATF.”
He said that ARRG Co-Chairs have given Guyana “a clean bill of health”. The May 25, 2016 Action Plan which is to be discussed shortly with the group, according to Williams, states, “The Enactment of the AMLCFT Amendment Act 2015, the AMLCFT (Amendment) (No.2) Act 2015 and the AMLCFT (Amendment) Act 2016 have substantially implemented all outstanding action items at the technical level.”
He said given that there is no provision in the FATF process to add to or diminish from the Action Plan, “Guyana is prepared to work with the FATF to exit its process.”
According to Williams, there is no possibility of Guyana facing any sanctions in terms of how and where Guyana is situated under both processes. Noting that under the last government CFATF had urged its members to take measures and counter measures against Guyana. “We came in and we have salvaged the situation and I think we have put the economy of Guyana out of danger in terms of any sanctions coming from the FATF or CFATF. I think both organizations have recognized that we have worked assiduously to address the recommendations under the action plan…and the follow-up process.” Turning his attention to the follow-up process, he said that this is the first time that government is addressing the CFATF process. “We came into office in May [2015] and that meeting was held in May so we couldn’t attend and this is the first meeting after that and they have said that we have fully addressed the core and key recommendations that are required.”
