Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:9 hours 46 min ago
Govt cutting it close on $ laundering bills
Published: 8 Oct 2009
When the Lower House meets tomorrow, Government will be “cutting it close” in seeking to pass amendments to two anti-money laundering bills to meet a deadline of tomorrow set by an international authority. MPs are expected to agree to the amendments which were made in the Senate on Monday and Tuesday to the Financial Intelligence Unit and Proceeds of Crime bills.
Government members, who piloted both sets of legislation in both Houses of Parliament in recent days, said the bills were needed for T&T to meet the recommendations of the global Financial Action Task Force. UNC’s Wade Mark, in the Senate on Monday, said T&T stands to be blacklisted if the legislation was not passed by tomorrow, when FATF holds a meeting in Paris. Several countries have been blacklisted by FATF for non-implementation of recommendations.
The Government, up to yesterday, did not deny the Friday deadline. The Government’s move to present the bills to Parliament at the “11th hour,” as Opposition and Independent senators said this week, was one of the major complaints in debate. Special majority votes were required for passage of both bills. However, a government spokesman said yesterday that amendments to bills being done by the House tomorrow, only needed agreement and did not require a special majority.
The situation, therefore, did not require all PNM MPs to be present at tomorrow’s sitting, they added. Finance Minister Karen Tesheira—who piloted the FIU bill last Wednesday in the House—left the next day for a World Bank conference and is due home next week. Opposition chief whip Dr Hamza Rafeeq said the Government had approved amendments to several previous special majority bills without using a special majority. “But we’ve always said if a bill requires a special majority for passage, so too should any amendment...The only way to challenge this may be in court,” Rafeeq said yesterday. For House debate of the FIU bill last week, the Government pulled out all the stops— reported in Saturday’s Public Affairs column —to ensure its MPs were present for the special majority vote. Several Opposition MPs will be absent from tomorrow’s sitting.
And there we go again, it is
And there we go again, it is said whoever wants to challenge this, has to go to the courts. Best job in TT now is being a lawyer.
Lawyer you say? Nope. The
Lawyer you say? Nope. The best job in T&T is being the owner of a funeral home.
http://dsaltsman.blogspot.com/
And Epsom, I see your point,
And Epsom, I see your point, good idea. ok what about a private Alternative Solutions Company using hightech and other means to stop all these ills of TTs society?
Yep, and the man to head
Yep, and the man to head this private Alternative Solutions Company would be..... (drum roll please)........ Mr Calder Hart....
Epsomsalts!
Epsomsalts!
Sounds like you need a dose of..... (drum roll please)........ salts....!
Such wit, such 'cruelty' so early in the morning merits at least that (^_~).
La diva
Allyuh bigging up
Allyuh bigging up epsomsalts, but I can tell you that the man racial against Indians. Just read some of his commentaries or see the dotishness he does put in his blog and you'll agree with me. The guy keeps attacking all the local Indian shows on Gayelle and nobody don't defend we. He should be banned.
Blacklisted? Several
Blacklisted?
Several countries have been blacklisted by FATF for non-implementation of recommendations.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body whose purpose is the development and promotion of national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
- When was the Trinbago executive made aware that we had to impliment changes?
- Who has the ultimate responsibility for the drafting and presenting of the bill?
- What are the implications for Trinbago (and I suspect not good) if the bill is not passed?
- Does FATF review the legislation and if found 'wanting', what are the implications for that?
- Why is Minister Tesheria at a World Bank conference? Is the World Bank's conference more important than this? Who is keeping an eye on the store?
- Why are several Opposition MPs going to be absent? Who is keeping an eye on the store?
- In the context of Trinbago becoming an 'International Financial Centre', what are the implications of a) being blacklisted; b) an poorly drafted, ill-thought out Amendments? I am not for one moment saying/suggesting the Bills have 'errors', but without proper reading/debate, all manner of 'things' could be in there.
These are my immediate questions. I am sure there will be more to follow after 'my staff' have had time to research.
La Diva
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Supplimentary info:
Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF)
The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) was designed to encourage the co-ordination of and the participation in anti-money laundering and terrorist financing training programmes. It is amed at assessing the degree to which its members have implemented the recommendations of the FATF and CFATF. Membership includes Jamaica, Costa Rica and Panama.
CFATF was established in the early 1990s and adapted the recommendations of the FATF to have regional perspective. Furthermore, an important aim of the CFATF is to continuingly develop measures designed to combat the laundering and the re-direction of the proceeds from crime.
The following jurisdictions are members of CFATF:
[edit: list of various countries]
Trinidad and Tobago
ONLY BECAUSE
ONLY BECAUSE -
We are only doing this because we have to. What does that say about governance in T&T? How effective do you think it will be managed? We have many laws on the books that should have avoided the CLICO and HCU debacle.
Not that we may ever find
Not that we may ever find out
But, I am curious to know what it was that 'flagged' Trinbago with FATF? Or what series of events triggered their interest. It is not as if anything different has been going on in the past 10 years (or even 20 years - FATF was founded in 1989.) Why now?
(I guess my thought is, are there more termite hills we, the owners of Trinbago, are unware of?)
La Diva
In case anyone is interested
In case anyone is interested
in the 'meat', the link to the CFATF "Third Round Mutual Evaluation Report of Trinidad and Tobago" which was produced sometime after their visit in 2007, is below. I wonder whose desk it landed on, but was 'never received'... is this one of the triggers or THE trigger for this flurry of activity?
www.cfatf.org/profiles/media/MEVAL%20Trinidad%20and%20Tobago.pdf
La Diva
This last minute mentality
This last minute mentality of the Government is reflective of much of the traits of the society. Government of the people is a reflection of the people.
We have to travel and it is at the last minute we discover our passport has expired or we need a visa. Our car insurance is coming up for renewal and it is only when we get the final reminder we begin to address the issue, and by that time it has expired but we still won't own up.
My ole man used to say "hurry bird build bad nest". The point is when you hurry important matters through, you are likely to make lots of serious erors. Since when was the Government aware of the deadline in this issue?
Why are Government ministers continuing to waste so much scarce foreign exchange on these jaunts and jollities and junkets in this recession? Is it their last hurrah? This piece of legislation falls directly within the purview of the minister of finance and she's off to Washington? Don't we have an Ambassador, another ex-AG and a burgeoining supporting staff in Washington for whom we just expended considerable foreign exchange to acquire more real property? Could these representatives not represent us at these routine meetings and help justify the State's outlay on them?
'Cooking books'as the BBC
'Cooking books'as the BBC reminded me, has been an age old practice. From making the balance sheet 'black' to recording 'expenses' to reflect a loss when a business really made huge profits thus cheating the taxman and/or ordinary shareholders, is nothing new to accountants. Sad to say, many accountants are unscrupulous and are nose deep in this 'white collar' crime business. What is even more disturbing is that people who 'cook books',and those who appear to be beneficiaries of 'book cooking' (including high officials in our country) may not feel that they are doing anything wrong, mainly because it is 'victimless' crime.
Money laundering involves 'cooking the books'. One hopes that the legal/judicial system will pursue all, whether high or low, and not look to ferret out only the small money launderer and ignore the big 'crook' simply because he or she may be a high official.
ajfyzabadbutlertown