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| Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, OCTOBER 27TH 2005 The St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly will debate anti-terrorism, financial intelligence and , regional integration legislation bills and Minister of State for Finance and Sustainable Development, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty, will seek parliamentary approval to make minor amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Act. No. 16 of 2000 and The Companies Act, No. 22 of 1996, when the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly meets on Friday.
Minister Carty will also pilot the amendments through all three stages at Friday's sitting.
He will also seek legislative approval for several amendments to the Financial Intelligence Unit Act, No. 15 of 2000.
The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2005 amends Section 67 by renumbering sub-section 1 and inserts a new paragraph which provides for the registered office of an exempt company to be the premises of a person authorised to carry on financial services business on St. Kitts.
Section 81 is also to be amended by deleting the words who is resident in the Federation occurring immediately after the word secretary.
The Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Bill 2005 seeks to renumber paragraph 21 as paragraph 22 and inserts a new paragraph 21 with the word Gaming.
Minister of State Carty will also seek amendments to the Financial Intelligence Unit Act, 2000 that will allow an application to be made to the Court for an Order requiring the production of information that the Intelligence Unit considers relevant to the fulfillment of its functions.
Other proposed amendments seek to provide for an application to be exparte, in writing and supported by an affidavit and that such an application shall be made in respect of a suspicious transaction connected with a regulated business activity or other person and for the Judge to order information to be produced by the person with the relevant information to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for inspection. The Bill identifies which financial records do not fall under the relevant section.
Other amendments detail how the FIU deals with information submitted, grants the person who is required to produce the information the right to apply to the same judge or another judge for a variation of the Order, make it an offense to contravene the Order of the Judge and imposes a fine or confinement or both for contravention of the Order.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, Industry and Commerce, Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris will move the Second Reading of the Caribbean Community Bill 2005. Minister of National Security, Justice, Immigration and Labour, the Hon. Dwyer Astaphan, will lead the debate on the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2005.
Both bills were given their introduction and First Reading at previous sittings in July and September respectively.
