The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister Obie Wilchcombe said yesterday he does not see the necessity of tabling the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations on the Christie administration’s new Gaming Bill, which were made nearly two months ago.

Mr Wilchcombe said FNM Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner’s calls for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) advice to be tabled in Parliament questioned the integrity of the government. He said he viewed her demands as an attempt to “scramble for issues” on the government’s “ground breaking” legislation.

Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson travelled to Paris in July to meet the FATF and glean feedback on the Gaming Bill, which includes new regulations to govern webshops.

Mr Wilchcombe said: “At the end of the day, I don’t think it is necessary to table the FATF’s recommendations to us. We must have some integrity with this issue, we are the government of the Bahamas and we were put here to do what is right.

“There are no issues with the Gaming legislation, but what they are doing is scrambling to raise issues that do not exist.

“The attorney general, who is attending to her sick husband and we wish him all the best, if she speaks during the debate in the Senate, she will give a detailed report of exactly what the FATF said to her on that visit.

“Let us focus on the issues before us, this is just another distraction that we don’t need to focus on.”

On Thursday, during her contribution to the gaming debate, Mrs Butler-Turner suggested that in the midst of uncertainty over regulating numbers houses, the government should consider making the FATF suggestions public. She said it could assist in allaying fears of money laundering that some believe the bill will facilitate.

She said: “So maybe they might want to table that for our absorption so that we can be knowledgeable in that regard as to what is going on. Questions of money laundering by certain enterprises and the good name of the Bahamas remain at bay and are of great concern. That is why I say this. I do not want us to just move blindly.”

The opposition has already pledged to vote against the proposed gaming legislation when debate wraps up.

Debate on the legislation continues today.