Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon today confirmed that Guyana will not meet the deadline for the implementation of the international standards for Anti-money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) – Financial Action Task Force Recommendations (FATF Recommendations).
The blame has been placed solely at the feet of the parliamentary opposition, which voted for the consideration of the Amendment Act to resume until October. The deadline for Guyana to make the amendments to the current legislation is tomorrow, Thursday August 22.
“This unquestionably was the desire and was the intent of the parliamentary opposition in preventing the Amendment Act from getting the timely consideration of the House and causing Guyana to fail to meet the CFATF deadline,” Dr. Luncheon said at his post cabinet media briefing today.
The Anti-money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Amendment Bill was before a Parliamentary Special Select Committee, comprising of both opposition and government members.
According to Dr. Luncheon, “The opposition members on the committee turned out in full force, records would show, this was an unusual turn out and essentially to ensure that the adjournment was voted for.”
The Cabinet Secretary explained that the deadline was highly advertised.
“That deadline was much advertised and one can only assume that the act by the parliamentary opposition was a deliberate act and one that was planned to ensure that Guyana would not meet the deadline and Guyana would stand the consequences of not meeting those deadlines.”
