Gov't hits back at call for global watchdogs to hold Jamaica to treaty standards

 

The ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has hit back at the opposition People's National Party's call for a number of international organisations, including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to hold Jamaica to high standards on the basis of treaties the country has signed.

 

Opposition Spokesperson on Foreign and Regional Affairs, Dr. Angela Brown Burke, made the appeal on Tuesday during her sectoral debate presentation in the House of Representatives. 

 

The call followed the appointment of Dennis Chung as the new head of the Financial Investigations Division (FID) - an appointment the opposition has challenged.

 

In a statement Thursday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Senator Kamina Johnson Smith rejected Dr. Brown Burke's call, arguing that Jamaica's reputation is sound and positive.

 

"The only things putting Jamaica's reputation at risk at this time are the PNP's irresponsible utterances and their attempts to bring them to international attention. The PNP has again demonstrated that they are willing to tarnish Jamaica's reputation if they believe it will get them closer to the seat of government. This is not only deeply unpatriotic, but it's entirely counterintuitive for someone who is seeking to present themselves as an alternative representative of the country's interests overseas," she suggested.

 

Senator Johnson Smith said the reckless approach taken by the PNP is not only on each occasion a missed opportunity to demonstrate readiness for leadership, but also a failure to demonstrate an understanding of international processes and systems.

 

"FATF is concerned with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing systems and frameworks. So [the opposition's] utterances are more than ironic because it is the JLP-led government that inherited and addressed the problems identified by FATF when they reviewed Jamaica systems in 2015. It's those findings that led to Jamaica's ultimate listing in 2020 and it is those matters which we fixed to get us off the list in 2024," the minister insisted.

 

Jamaica was removed from FATF's grey list of countries that were assessed as having strategic deficiencies in their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regimes on June 28, 2024, four years after it was placed on the grey list in 2020.

 

Placement on FATF's grey list signals to international financial and other institutions to take special care when transacting with entities and individuals from a FATF grey-listed country.

 

This makes transacting with grey-listed countries more expensive.