The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Minnis administration is confident it has done everything necessary to avoid a financial blacklisting, according to Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest.

Addressing the government’s continued efforts to comply with commitments made to various international organisations including the G20, European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Mr Turnquest told reporters outside of Cabinet yesterday the government has done what it needed to do and was now in a “wait and see” position.

“(We are) as confident as we can be,” he said. “These things are somewhat subjective, unfortunately. We’ve been asking the EU, the OECD to tell us exactly what it is, that is exactly to be done; to give us a model law that we can benchmark off of and establish our legislation off of.”

Unfortunately, Mr Turnquest said, these organisations have not been prepared to assist the Bahamas in that regard, to date.

He said: “It’s been a back and forth kind of discussion where we are putting forth our position and they’re saying whether in their opinion it’s acceptable or not.

“So, we’re really, in real time, developing this kind of thing, which is always an uncomfortable position because the standard keeps moving, as you put forth proposals they come back with new positions and we keep going back and forth. There are different countries making proposals in the same vein and so based on what other countries put in their proposal then the standard for you changes and so it’s just a back and forth.

“And I don’t think that we will know for sure whether we are at the goal post or have exceeded the goal post until December 31 when everybody would have had to put their cards on the table and we know exactly what the final results is going to be.

“But we are confident,” he added. “because we’ve had the back and forth discussions.”

He said the government has submitted legislation packages for the groups to review, which so far have been acceptable.

“. . .So, we believe that we’ve done what we need to do in order to prevent that blacklist and where there are continued gaps, we’ve certainly signaled to them our intent to be at the table to further discuss these positions are, so that at the end of the day, we meet the national commitment as well as preserve our domestic system.”

Of the EU and the like’s “ever-changing” goal post, Mr Turnquest did admit that while aspects of the system’s structure were beginning to wear on his team, it viewed the entire process as an avenue to guarantee a “level playing field” for the country.

“We negotiate within the framework and the circumstance that is before us,” the East Grand Bahama MP stated. “… We do the best we can in trying to ensure that at the end of the day whatever position is arrived at is one that is shared by all countries so that there is, to the extent possible, a level playing field everybody’s playing from the same point.”

Meanwhile, addressing the criticisms the government has encountered in its quest to accommodate these major organisations, Mr Turnquest dismissed claims that the Bahamas was “bending over backwards” to comply.

According to Mr Turnquest, there have been several instances in which the Bahamas has had to push-back against requests from foreign bodies.

In these instances, he revealed, the Bahamas government has had to communicate its unwillingness to comply, insisting that it has adopted the position of not relenting on any request considered harmful to the Bahamas’ economy and sovereignty.

He told reporters: “I keep making this point to the Bahamian public, particularly to our critics, that this is in fact a global standard, this is not a bilateral standard and to the extent to where we believe that our interest is being harmed, we are pushing back.”

“Sometimes we do get in an argument, sometimes we don’t but when it comes to the sovereignty of the Bahamas we continue to assert that the Bahamas has every right and fiduciary duty as a government to the Bahamian people to ensure that our sovereignty is not infringed upon and that we maintain our right to make domestic law and to protect the interest of the Bahamian people.”

On Monday, the Senate debated and passed four of the five bills it sought bring to law as a means to comply with international regulations.

The Commercial Entities (Substance Requirements) Bill 2018; the Removal of Preferential Exemptions Bill 2018 and the Register of Beneficial Ownership Bill 2018; and the Penal Code Amendment Bill 2018 were all approved by the Senate, leaving only the Non-Profit Organisations Bill “in committee” and open to changes.

Addressing the issues with that specific piece of legislation yesterday, Mr Turnquest said the confusion surrounding the bill seems to dwarf the government’s true intent.

Mr Turnquest said the government never intended the legislation to act as “watchdog” for NPOs, but rather a protectorate for them.

He asserted: “(The) bill is rooted in the government’s obligation to ensure that there is no entity that exists in the country that facilitates willingly or unwillingly, the financing of terrorism of proliferation of financing.

“… The whole idea is to ensure that there is a level of transparency to identify where there is or there is any attempt to use the Bahamas as a financing place or place to introduce the financing for these illicit or nefarious activities.”

He also said: “I guess we can only take a lesson from what has been said. Various organisations are saying that there wasn’t enough consultation, and so, from their perspective there wasn’t and we have to accept that.

“So I think the attorney general in the Senate (Monday) has indicated that he will pull back the bill for a bit more discussion, but at the end of the day the provisions of the bill are going to have to go forward. Whether there’s amendments to the language to make some things more clear, that may happen, but the basic intent of the bill, the basic premises of the bill, unfortunately or fortunately, has to go forward.”