Bahama: Anti-Terrorism Amendment Blasted

By Quincy Parker
The Ingraham Administration on Wednesday moved to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act 2004 in order to comply more fully with The Bahamas’ international obligations in relation to anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering activities.

Former Attorney General Alfred Sears, however, blasted the government for bringing legislation he suggested was deficient, and took credit for embarrassing the government into dealing with the issue now rather than going on vacation.

The Ft. Charlotte MP warned that not enough attention is being paid to the concerns about compliance with all the international anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering agreements.

Mr. Sears noted that in many instances, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) evaluators found The Bahamas partially compliant in many areas – there are eight areas in which the Act is deficient, he said, and the amendment doesn’t address them all.

"The bill before us – if it is intended to make the Anti-Terrorism Act fully compliant with the international standards, with the international conventions that we have signed as a country – the amendment before us will not do that," he said.

"In the mutual evaluation, which the government agreed, they have identified eight areas of deficiencies specific to this particular act, and here we are addressing only one."

"And we are addressing it," he added, "because (I) embarrassed them because thy wanted to go on holiday, and it was only after (I) challenged them (that they brought the amendment")."

Mr. Sears charged that the Ingraham government had been "asleep at the wheel" in 2000 when The Bahamas was blacklisted by the OECD. He quoted Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who said at the time he was "surprised and greatly disappointed" that The Bahamas was included on the blacklist.

"We are sleeping at the wheel again in 2008, because (the government has) the report. They agreed the report. They know that, with respect to the Anti-Terrorism Act, there are eight deficiencies identified," he charged.

"Why in heaven’s name would they come into this parliament, knowing that there are eight deficiencies identified, knowing that we are not fully in compliance with our international obligations?"

The former attorney general charged that the government is being "lackadaisical" and "reckless" with the financial services sector.

The proposed Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Act 2008 was necessitated by conclusions drawn by the CFATF, which comprises those states and territories in the Caribbean Basin that have agreed to implement common countermeasures against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Minister of Education Carl Bethel – who served as attorney general in an earlier Ingraham Administration – moved the amendments on Wednesday morning, noting the findings of the CFATF evaluators published in a mutual evaluation report late last year.

"First the good news," the minister said. "The evaluators concluded that at the time of the evaluation there had been no evidence of terrorism or the financing of terrorism in The Bahamas."

"The evaluators further concluded that no suspicious transaction report from any financial institution or from any other source had been received that would indicate the occurrence of terrorism or of terrorism financing in The Bahamas."

Mr. Bethel said the findings were significant, because they showed The Bahamas was not in "mortal danger," as he said a PLP MP had alleged.

The minister said the passage of the 2004 Act was an attempt to comply with the most critical of the nine special recommendations promulgated by the FATF in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US.

Mr. Bethel noted that the CFATF evaluators had conducted a comprehensive review of the relevant laws including the Anti-Terrorism Act, about which they made specific recommendations.

He said the evaluators repeatedly noted that the act didn’t extend to all the conventions and protocols named in the Terrorist Financing Convention, nor did it fully implement the two UN Security Council resolutions arising out of the 9/11 attacks.

The evaluators noted that the requirement in Section 9(4) of the act makes reciprocity a pre-condition for giving international assistance in freezing assets of alleged terrorists, and according to the minister they said this "may not constitute the greatest measure of assistance as contemplated by…the Security Council Resolution."

Section 9 of the act is therefore being amended to remove the requirement for reciprocity before The Bahamas renders assistance as a result of a request from another state.

The bill proposes to amend Section 17 as well, which deals with the procedure by which assets are frozen under Mutual Legal Assistance requests.

Source: The Bahama Journal