Georgetown : A Government team went to Linden to sensitise and bring the people of the mining town with the status of the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLCFT) Bill. According to a Government release, Linden residents were very clear that they want the bill to be passed.
“I am concerned with the bill, and I want the bill to be passed…I don’t expect anything different from them (opposition),” one resident stated at the event held at the Watooka Guest House. He was referring to the opposition’s stance towards the bill.
The residents were not in support of the opposition’s recent proposal to the bill, that is seeking to give Police and Custom Officers the power to stop and search persons, and if they are found with $2 Million worth of currency or more, that currency can be seized and the person arrested, if the police or Customs Officer has reasonable suspicion that it is the proceeds of a serious offence or the subject of money laundering. To this, residents say consideration should not be given since it will be contrary to their rights to move around freely with currency.
Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira and Minister within the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill made presentations.
During her detailed presentation to the eager audience, Teixeira first sought to highlight the urgent need for the passage of the bill in keeping with the requirement of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF). She told the gathering that it was in their best interest that the billed is passed without any hindrance and delays since Guyana is currently at risk of being blacklisted. The Presidential Advisor went on to inform the gathering of what the bill entails for the ordinary man, as well as for business owners who have built their businesses from an honest living. On this note, she elaborated that the bill will provide for tracking of money being ‘washed’ to build legitimate businesses.
“Money from the narcotics trade was being used, washed, and sanitised and put into the legal system What this means is that someone who sells cocaine which is illegal and makes $10 M has to get it into the legal system…it means you have to get it into the economy by one way or the other”.
With the passage of this Bill, Teixeira explained that the law would now allow the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to follow the money trail of money launderers.
Globally it is by these same methods as outlined in the Bill that several drug lords were captured and prosecuted, Teixeira highlighted.
“Globally, the United States and Colombia, they were able to seize, arrest, charge and convict some big drug lord, not by nabbing them with the cocaine, but through their paper trail of following where the money went, be it through banking, insurance, cambio and so on.”
Teixeira explained some of the implications the non-passage of this bill will bring for numerous of Guyana’s thriving export businesses, and urged the residents to speak out and implore of their leaders the importance of the speedy passage of this bill.
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