ORANJESTAD, Aruba, CMC -Guyana Wednesday called on the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) to ensure that assessors continue to be trained to improve their capabilities to be even more objective and clinical in their assessments.
Addressing the 57th Plenary and Working Group meetings of the CFATF, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall SC, said. At the same time, Georgetown has recognized the excellent work that CFATF has done over the years and acknowledged the efforts of the assessors in their mutual evaluations. However, there are still some issues to overcome.
“The Mutual Evaluation Peer Assessment of a nation’s financial sector for Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism compliance by the requisite international standards is an exercise of fundamental importance.
“An adverse assessment can have pernicious consequences and far-reaching ramifications for a country’s financial sector economic welfare and can affect the lives and livelihoods of an entire population,” Nandlall said, adding, “It is therefore imperative that these assessors appreciate the magnitude of their responsibility and discharge them with diligence and objectivity.”
The Guyana Attorney General said that he hopes his observations are interpreted in the spirit with which they are expressed, that is to say, with the hope and expectation that it will result in a more robust and more effective regional AMLCFT monitoring framework.
The CFATF Plenary and Working Group meetings are due to end on Friday. They are regarded as critical to the improvement and success of jurisdictions in meeting their international AML/CFT obligations, which follow the recommendations of the global oversight body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The meeting provides an opportunity for countries in the assessment process to discuss key issues identified in their Draft Mutual Evaluation Report.
Countries that have already been assessed under the fourth-round process provide updates on progress made since their evaluation; delegates are provided updates on outcomes for the FATF’s various meetings and new and emerging money laundering threats in the region.
The Mutual Evaluation of Guyana by the CFATF took place September 3 – 16 this year. Guyana will be expected to defend its position at the CFATF 58th Plenary in Trinidad and Tobago in Mayor June next year.
Guyana said its attendance at the meeting here “provides a critical opportunity” for the country “to assess similar items about its assessment and adequately defend Guyana’s position before the next CFATF Plenary.
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