[www.inewsguyana.com] – The battle continues with government and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) as it relates to the Anti – Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill.
While President Donald Ramotar is claiming that he offered Opposition Leader David Granger to pass the Bill with the APNU amendments, Granger is claiming that the President made no such offer.
In a statement the APNU said, “Despite having on his desk (for over eight months) the combined opposition’s pre-conditions for passage of the legislation, the President made it clear that there would be no nexus between those conditions and the passage of the AML-CFT amendment Bill.”
The meeting between the two took place on Wednesday, June 18, at the request of Granger.
“However it was clear when the two sides met that the President was not willing to negotiate and definitely was not in a conciliatory mood.”
President Ramotar had said, the government was willing to vote for the Bill even though they felt it was non compliant, but wanted the Bill to be passed in the National Assembly before the Financial Action Task Force meets later this month.
President Ramotar explained that he made the proposal on the grounds that the Opposition should not link the AML Bill to their other demands, which includes the President’s assent to the Bill passed in the National Assembly and his support to the Public Procurement Commission being established without Cabinet retaining its role in granting no-objection to awards above $15M.
