Attorney General Reginald Armour says 63,000 inactive companies will be struck off the Companies Registry.
He said, in five weeks, a team from Global Forum will be in Trinidad and Tobago.
In his contribution to the debate of The Miscellaneous Provisions (Global Forum Bill) 2024 at the Senate sitting on Tuesday, Armour said the “old back of the envelope” approach to corporate administration must end.
He said the Registrar General has embarked on a programme of striking off companies for failure to file critical post-incorporation documents, in particular annual returns for a period of three or more years.
“The Registrar General has identified as at March 31, 2024 some 63,000 companies, ostensibly inactive companies, and recently commenced a comprehensive striking-off process with respect to these entities,” he said. “Both the FATF and the Global Forum frown on dead corporate entities reposing in registries so the removal of inactive companies shall go a long way in demonstrating our commitment to becoming more in compliance with the requirements of these inter-governmental and international bodies,” he added.
The AG noted that clause 18 of the Bill speaks to a new regime pertaining to companies and to external companies.
“All such companies must now obtain and ascertain beneficial ownership information in a manner that they consider appropriate mindful of the overarching legal obligation to verify the currency and correctness of such information,” he said.
The beneficial ownership information disclosure requirements are extended to trusts and legal arrangements and firms and partnerships, he said.
The Bill specifically applies to express trusts as opposed to implied trusts which are not always readily discernible, he said.
Armour said further amendments were introduced setting out a requirement for such trusts and other legal arrangements to now register with the Registrar General pursuant to the Trustees Ordinance.
“This requirement that trusts be registered is an acknowledgement of the mischief for which they can be misused in terms of facilitating financial crime and tax evasion,” he said.
Armour said in five weeks the peer review team from the Global Forum will be in T&T.
He said the Registrar General’s department continues to be assisted by the Global Facility.
He noted that Global Facility is a body which is responsible for supporting countries in adopting enhanced measures to increase their compliance with the international Anti Money Laundering (AML), Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Framework and as a unit of the European Union (EU).
That Global Facility is assisting the Registrar General’s department now and other relevant State agencies as they prepare for the visit of the peer review team, he said.
Armour said three members of the Global Facility were in Trinidad and Tobago last week and their observations and contributions materially informed amendments to the Bill particularly those pertaining to legislation under the remit of the Registrar General.