House amends Terrorism Prevention Act

PARLIAMENT yesterday amended the Terrorism Prevention Act, a move that will now allow Jamaica to satisfy its obligations under the Financial Action Taskforce of which the country is a member.

Andrew Holness, the leader of Government Business in the House, admitted that "not fulfilling those obligations could result in a lockout (from international financial markets), which in effect would impede certain (monetary) flows." He was responding to a question from Opposition member Ronald Thwaites about whether the amendment, nearly four years in the making, was intended to "satisfy certain flows".

"The importance of passing this piece of legislation is in fulfilment of our obligations to an international body -- a body known as the Financial Action Taskforce," Holness told the House.

Holness described the taskforce as an inter-governmental organisation, which is linked to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"The purpose of the organisation is to ensure that governments and international organisations promote policies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. As a member of the organisation Jamaica is subject to be monitored by the organisation," Holness said.

"If we don't implement the measures that they recommend, then we could face what is termed in financial quarters as a lockout from the international financial processes," he said.

"In a general sense, it would be linked to certain flows," he admitted.

The amendment to section 47 of the Act is to allow the responsible minister to make regulations and to prescribe the appropriate penalties, which now stand at a mere $1,000.

"We are required to be compliant by virtue of the regulations that would give directives for reporting financial information that may relate to terrorism activity," Holness said. He argued that the move was necessary to demonstrate that Jamaica was a responsible state, "not necessarily because of the threat of terrorism why we are fulfilling our obligations".

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