Georgetown : Guyana’s failure to pass the amendments to the Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism legislation has not gone unnoticed by the U.S. Department of State’s 2014 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR).
The report which was released on February 28 states that Guyana has received ample warning from the Caribbean Financial Task Force (CFATF) of the risks that could flow as a result of non-passage of the said amendments, including being listed internationally as a non-compliant territory.
“Such a designation would increase the costs of Guyana’s international financial transactions and also impact insurance rates,” the 2014 report stated.
The parliamentary Opposition has been going back and forth on this Bill since it was tabled in the National Assembly in March 2013. The country missed a major deadline to come into compliance in November last year which resulted in its being placed on the CFATF’s regional blacklist as a result of the Opposition’s intransigence.
The last deadline was February 28, by which time the country was supposed to pass and enforce the amendment Bill in order for it to be considered at the CFATF’s May plenary. Unfortunately, this deadline too was not met.
Recently, CFATF’s financial advisor Roger Hernandez while on a visit to Guyana said that the APNU proposed amendments expose Guyana to the peril of being non compliant.
In this year’s INCSR, several regional jurisdictions have been named among the top money laundering nations including: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, and Haiti. The latter three along with Jamaica have also been listed among the major drug transit countries.
Mention was made of the drafting of the new Drug Strategy Master Plan (2012-2016) by the Home Affairs Ministry. This document is in its final stage of drafting, and upon completion, will enable Guyana to enhance its Local, Regional and International Strategies to combat drugs.
The report also noted that Guyanese authorities convicted 201 persons on drug related charges during the first six months of 2013.
The INCSR is an annual report by the Department of State to Congress. It describes the steps taken during the previous year by the governments of nearly 90 countries to reduce illicit narcotics production, trafficking, and use.
