…from blacklist?
After all the “sturm und drang” from the APNU/AFC over the last four years on the AML/CFT Bill – intended to satisfy the FATF, not to blacklist us and make us international financial pariahs – your Eyewitness fully expected AG Basil Williams to lead the Government ministers to shout from the top of Bank of Guyana: “Free at last!! Free at last!! Thank God Almighty, Guyana is free at last!” After all, Guyana’s now officially off the blacklist, under his government!
But seeing as how the Minister of the Presidency bitch-slapped him silly over his “compulsory acquisition of friendly property” gambit, maybe he has other things on his mind as he licks his wounded ego! But let’s look at the whole affair – which looks from where your humble Eyewitness is sitting, as pretty sordid. Firstly, we now see that the crisis was totally manufactured by the APNU/AFC by refusing to sign the AML/CFT bill since there wasn’t much else THEY did as the government to get off the blacklist. Any “beg pardon” to the PPP? Not in this life!!
But the other gripe is the FATF was formed to seek and destroy ALL those responsible for “money laundering” which could then lead to “financing terrorists”. Yet the only countries pulled up by the seat of their pants and threatened with blacklisting have mostly been little pawns like Guyana. In the meantime it’s been shown ad nauseam that the biggest centres of laundering are Britain and the US!! The latest exposé has been the Panama Papers which showed how the game’s played.
Corporations in Britain routinely register thousand of paper/shell companies either in London itself, the Channel Islands, or in British territories, etc, and funnel money through tax havens like Panama. The quantities make the Kaieteur and Niagara Falls look like your kitchen faucet! Yet no one’s hauling THEM up before the FATF. In the US, for decades Delaware’s been doing the same and has recently been joined by Nevada and Wyoming… but who asks?
OK, your Eyewitness knows it’s money that makes the (financial) world go around (is that a tautology?) and since we don’t have much of that stuff, we have to grin and bear it. But at least Basil Williams should now ask banks that had cut reciprocal relations with our banks – like Bank of America – to reverse their decisions. BoA, which was fined US$16.5 million for funnelling drugs money from Mexico, obviously has no shame. But Basil can seize the moral high ground and put them on the spot.
If nothing else, this should help him to regain some equilibrium (if not ground) in the Cabinet!!
…to move among the masses
One of the interesting revelations coming out of the Auditor General’s Report was $13.5 million allocated for a Land Cruiser for the Office of the Prime Minister. Now this was interesting since we’d already had a big brouhaha when, after the 50 per cent salary increases of Ministers, the Prime Minister spent some $22 million for a Land Cruiser.
In the outrage that followed the government’s refusal to give government workers the “significant” raise they’d been promised, Prime Minister Nagamootoo had explained that he needed the special ride so that he could visit his “constituents” in Berbice. So the question arising is what’s this new Land Cruiser for? Is it for the PM to visit his constituents at Wales? Or is it perchance for his shill in the OPM?
In either case, how does he balance this kind of splurging with the austerity of a salary freeze on sugar workers that forced them into a national strike?
But then, some folks more equal than others, no?
…from stereotyping
The papers used to print some “name and shame” reports of persons caught “Driving Under the Influence” (DUI). Problem was only – only – Berbicians were cited. This week they’ve included Essequibians.
When will Demerarians be given an equal opportunity to show they’re also “real” Guyanese?
