FATF on-site visit could be disastrous for Guyana – Nandlall

The visit by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) later this week to observe Guyana’s regulatory practices, could prove disastrous for this country, which is still to come up to par with international financial recommendations.

Former Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall said on Thursday last, that the Guyana Government is failing in many ways and could find itself in a “serious problem” when the monitoring team visits Guyana.
“When the on-site visit takes place later this month, we might find ourselves in problems, because we don’t have an enforcement unit as recommended by the FATF”, Nandlall said during a televised interview.
He noted that when they group comes to Guyana, it will find two gaping holes in the system. One, he said, will be that the country does not have a Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) for the purpose of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements. Also, he said Government has created a huge beauracratic organ, called an AML/CFT Authority, which should comprise of some 20 persons; 10 of whom will be holders of certain offices, similar to that of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Police Commissioner, the head of CANU, the Guyana Revenue Authority, etc, and the other 10 to be appointed by Parliament.
Nandlall said it could be difficult since Parliament took some 15 months to appoint the Director and the Deputy Director of the critical Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
“I don’t know how long it would take to appoint two,” he stated.
Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams had said that Guyana would soon be able to exit FATF and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) when officials from FATF carry out an on-site visit here.
“Having met the core recommendations for CFATF, we would have been able to exit but for the fact that Guyana had been referred under the previous Government to the FATF process after being subjected to three public statements and still haven’t corrected or implemented the recommendations. So it’s obvious we cannot exit CFATF until we exit FATF and that is why we are here because we have satisfied all those recommendations in CFATF and that is why we were able to have them do the on-site visit”, he told journalists.
The on-site visit to Guyana by FATF’s five-member team will be conducted on September 14 and 15.
“With the on-site visit, FATF will be looking to see if the reforms contained in the agreed action plan between Guyana and FATF, if those reforms have been introduced, implemented and sustained and if there is political commitment to sustain it,” Williams said.
He added that once the team is satisfied then Government, at the next October meeting, will move a motion for them to exit the process.
The team will also meet with the Attorney General and compliance team; the Finance Minister; the Director of Public Prosecutions; supervisory authorities and reporting entities, including banks and remittance services.
Williams said Guyana has prepared for this visit by having its AML/CFT compliance team conducting meetings with key agencies, including the Financial Action Unit (FIU), The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and the Bank of Guyana (BoG) to sensitise them on their AML/CFT obligations.
“There is no delay; Guyana has done something that is unprecedented in the FATF world and that is within a year in Government, we are poised to exit both FATF and CFATT… This is the third round. In the fourth round you will not only have to comply, but show effective compliance. The fourth round has already started because we have already been exposed to the whole issue of de-risking and the National Assessment that has started to identify risks in Guyana”, the Attorney General said about the process.