AG to attend CFATF steering group meeting

GINA Guyana, Thursday, March 23, 2017

Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Basil Williams, SC will be representing Guyana at the meeting of a steering group of the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce (CFATF) to be held in Miami, Florida from April 10, 2017. Special Adviser to the Minister, Tessa Oudkerk will also attend the meeting.

During a post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency today, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon explained that the steering committee of the CFATF will discuss important issues related to the May 2017 CFATF Plenary and Working Groups’ Meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, at which Minister Williams will assume chairmanship of the task force.

CFATF is a body responsible for monitoring the operations of Anti-Money Laundering legislation throughout the Caribbean. The intention is to achieve effective implementation of, and compliance with, international recommendations on the prevention and control of money laundering and the combating of the financing of terrorism.

Guyana was officially removed from the Financial Action Taskforce’s (FATF) watch list in 2016. The organisation’s website stated that, “On the basis of progress made, with Guyana substantially completing all its action plan items, the FATF Plenary in October 2016 decided to allow Guyana to exit the FATF ICRG process.”

The successful exit from the FATF/ICRG (International Co-operation Review Group) process paved the way for it to be removed from the CFATF monitoring process. CFTAF is FATF’s regional monitoring body.

 

By: Synieka Thorne