[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Private Sector Commission (PSC) has issued a strong warning to the government and political opposition parties to work together and find common ground in order to ensure the passage of the Anti – Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill or suffer the consequences.
Over the past week, the PSC met with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the Alliance For Change (AFC) and members of the government.
The PSC also met with Financial Advisor of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), Roger Hernandez. The legislation is required to be passed by Friday February 28, 2014.
“The Private Sector Commission, having consulted at length with the CFATF Financial Advisor, wishes to warn that, should Guyana fail to report on 28th February, 2014, to CFATF that the National Assembly has passed AML/CFT legislation which is compliant with the requirements of CFATF, extremely severe financial counter measures will inevitably be taken against Guyana by the Financial Action Task Force and International Cooperation Review Group (FATF/ICRG),” the PSC said in a statement.
It was noted that the PSC in meetings with all of the political parties concerned has underlined the fact that since earlier CFATF deadlines have been missed, already a number of international banks have begun to impose financial restrictions with consequential delays on transacting business with Guyana and that the consequences will be felt by the entire population.
“The PSC cannot over emphasize the fact, which we have done at all of our meetings with the political parties, that enormous and irretrievable damage will be done to the country’s economy from which it will take Guyana a minimum of two years to recover after having first met its international obligations to legislate and implement measures against money laundering.
The PSC can do no more now than appeal to our government and to our parliamentary opposition parties to rise above their political interest and do what is right for Guyana and its people.”
Didn’t the PSC knew this all those years back ??? Why is only now they are warning about this? All the time they washing and cleaning they were not worrying about that now the CFAT is saying it’s time to stop because all the laundry did not clean the city it still dirty. Now the PSC wake up and come to warn people about consequences which they knew about all those years back. Don’t blame the Opposition , blame the PPP/Govt for doing nothing all those years when they had the majority in Parliament