Gov’t expects better investigations, more convictions as fight against financial crimes intensifies
The government on Tuesday made public its five-year (2021 – 2025) National Policy and Strategy to combat money laundering, terrorism financing, and the financing of proliferation.
The National Policy and Strategy provides a guide to the actions to be undertaken to improve Guyana’s effectiveness in mitigating these crimes.
As it promises to intensify the fight against these financial crimes, the five-year plan makes specific recommendations to improve the State’s enforcement arms toward better investigations and more convictions.
The improvements are directly linked to the risks identified in Guyana’s Second National Risk Assessment Report and will see the implementation of the strategy in conjunction with the country’s Risk-Based Action Plan.
The plan proposes improvements to the investigating and prosecuting capabilities of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) which was first established in 2004 under the Money Laundering Prevention Act of 2000.
That Act was repealed and replaced by the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act No. 13 of 2009.
The FIU will enhance its internal capabilities by continuing to increase and train its staff; it will request access (both legally and operationally) to any additional databases it needs to gather sufficient intelligence to support its analyses; it will also develop and implement information technology tools that would enable it to facilitate and enhance its analytical capabilities.
“This is all towards the FIU ensuring its improvement of the quality of its Intelligence Gathering and Processing,” the strategy outlined.
The other actions to be taken by the FIU includes the continuous development of additional capabilities in the longer term, such as an increased focus on strategic analyses to identify trends and patterns and support the establishment of policies and goals to further strengthen AML/CFT supervision.
The FIU will also be tasked with providing updated guidelines to reporting entities on dealing with foreign and local PEPs. Securing Membership to the Egmont Group, having already secured sponsors and having its application in progress. Providing Reporting Entities (REs) with information to assist them in managing their ML/TF risk, including risk associated with high-risk customers.
A timeframe from mid-2021 to the end of 2023 has been set for completing these.
The eight Strategic objectives are:
1- ensuring policy coordination to mitigate ML/TF/PF risks;
2- strengthening AML/CFT/PF legislative framework;
3- strengthening and clarifying the AML/CFT/PF supervisory framework;
4- enhancing the FIU’s capabilities;
5- enhancing investigation and prosecution capabilities;
6- developing greater cooperation and coordination among domestic competent authorities;
7- enhancing regional and international cooperation;
8- ensuring adequate, accurate and up-to-date information on beneficial ownership and control of legal persons and legal arrangements.