T&T a soft target for terrorists

National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy says T&T remains a soft target for terrorists. Sandy said so while contributing to yesterday’s Senate debate on a bill to amend the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Act. The bill was presented for debate by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan. It seeks to establish the Financial Intelligence Unit to monitor the implementation and adherence of the recommendations against money laundering and the financing of terrorism as recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). T&T is now in FATF’s grey zone for non-compliance of many of its recommendations. Sandy said terrorists who might not be able to attack international personalities in certain countries might attempt to do so in T&T.

“It’s not one of those situations (when one can say) it can’t happen here,” he said. “It can happen here and when it happens here we must be ready, we must pre-empt it and ensure that it is difficult for any terrorist activity to be conducted (carried out) here.” He said blame for this country’s non-compliance of FATF’s recommendations must be placed on the former Patrick Manning administration, which did nothing to make the country compliant. He said the former Manning administration did not take the FATF recommendations seriously. Sandy said a high level mission from FATF came to T&T to discuss the matter and it was blanked by Manning.

“During that visit, when they made efforts to meet with our prime minister at the time, he refused to meet with them,” he said. Sandy said since assuming office as minister and having to work with the FATF, “My experience has been that they see T&T as arrogant as we don’t care (and) we don’t need to be compliant.” But former minister in the Ministry of Finance, Mariano Browne, who was sworn in as a temporary senator yesterday, did not share Sandy’s view. He replaces Opposition Senate leader Pennelope Beckles-Robinson. Browne said four Government ministers attended a meeting with FATF officials in this country under former PM Manning.

He said the delegation included then finance minister Karen Tesheira, then national security minister Martin Joseph and former attorney general Bridgid Annistette-George. Browne piloted the original bill to establish the FIU. He said since that time, not much had been achieved. He received sustained desk thumping when he was called to contribute to the marathon debate. He said the new Government must do all it could to ensure FATF compliance and not seek to lay blame on the PNM. He said the change in Government might have negatively affected the process that was in place for this country to be more FATF compliant.

He said the consultants that were hired by the former government to train and assist with the implementation of the measures were relieved of their responsibilities. Browne said the former government was seeking to encourage businesses to be guided by the law and not necessarily to have it enforced. Meanwhile, Opposition senator Terrence Deyalsingh was critical of the Government over its decision to charter a Caribbean Airlines plane to travel to Brazil for high-level meetings. The 40-member delegation, led by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, left on Monday afternoon. Deyalsingh said that was a suspicious act. Minister in the Ministry of National Security Subhas Panday, while seated, asked Deyalsingh if he would have preferred they use a Bombardier private jet.