With Guyana being in the fourth round of evaluation by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), Attorney General, Basil Williams revealed yesterday that the government has increased its efforts to ensure full compliance with the CFATF’s recommendations against money laundering.
Guyana comes up for assessment in 2022. Williams stressed that until that time arrives, no effort will be spared to ensure that supervisory bodies and reporting agencies are operating with a high level of efficiency.
He then referred to the National Risk Assessment from which the National Action Plan, for tackling money laundering, terrorist financing, and other related crimes, was derived. In this regard, he said that a meeting was hosted at the Bank of Guyana (BOG) where heads of agencies were updated on the implementation of the Action Plan.
According to the AG, “This fourth round is even harsher than the third, it is more resource intensive, so a lot has to be done and we have to start doing it now. One might think that 2022 is a long time, but it is not necessarily so.”
He noted that the registries are currently updating information on companies with an emphasis on beneficial ownership. The Attorney General also pointed to the need for convictions, as part of the CFATF requirements. He said that thus far, many other jurisdictions have failed in this regard.
The Attorney General noted, however, that convictions are dependent on the Court of Law.
