U.S. urges Guyana to beef up money laundering laws
Guyana Chronicle
March 2, 2007
THE U.S. State Department is recommending that the Government of Guyana introduce Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)-drafted money laundering legislation as early as possible in the current legislative session.
According to the 2007 International Narcotics Strategy Control Report (INSCR), the country’s current money-laundering regime is ineffective and implementing regulations of current legislation ineffective.
While reiterating that Guyana is neither an important regional or offshore financial centre, the report also repeated the claim, first made last year, that money laundering underscored an informal economy that was 60 to 50 per cent of the formal economy. The report credited the fact that there were no arrests or prosecutions for money laundering during 2006 to a lack of adequate legislation and resources.
“In order to improve the GoG’s anti-money laundering regime,” the report states, “the FIU has prepared drafts of legislation criminalizing the financing of terrorism and expanding the scope of the money laundering offence. The new legislation is also expected to provide for oversight of export industries, the insurance industry, real estate and alternative remittance systems. The draft money laundering act failed to make the legislative agenda before the dissolution of Parliament in May 2006.”
According to a Guyana Chronicle report published on September 28 of last year, President Bharrat Jagdeo had stated that Financial Intelligence Unit was, along with some other external agencies, tasked with producing draft legislation to replace the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act of 2002.
The new legislation was expected to incorporate the 40 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering along with an additional nine recommendations in relation to terrorist financing.
A final draft of the legislation was completed but because it was only handed over about two weeks before Parliament was dissolved, the legislation could not have been passed, the President had explained.
The report is also recommending that the FIU be given greater autonomy. The unit was established in 2003 within the Ministry of Finance and receives its funding through the ministry. It noted that FIU was a “one-person organization” severely limited in its access to local law enforcement data and contact with similar organisations overseas.
“The GOG should,” stated the report, “provide greater autonomy for the FIU by making it an independent unit with its own budget and office space, enable the FIU to access law enforcement data, and ensure that the FIU has the operational capacity to meet the membership requirements of the Egmont Group and other international standards.”
Though covering events of 2006 primarily, the 2007 INSCR also touched on the Gambling Prevention (Amendment) Bill, passed in January of this year.
Noting the controversy surrounding the legislation, particularly claims of the potential for money laundering provided by legalized casino gambling, the report urged the government to “ensure that the necessary anti-money laundering regulations are extended to the gaming sector.”