THE National Insurance Scheme (NIS) has its problems but, by no means, is it at the level of a crisis, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon assured yesterday.“I have sought to disabuse the minds of stakeholders. This is a lesser problem because the average stakeholder knows that this issue of NIS being in crisis is just fallacious,” he told his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

“We do have problems at the scheme, but to elevate it to the level of crisis is downright uncharitable…creates all sorts of wrong impressions in the public’s domain. We pay over a billion dollars in benefits every month, religiously, without being harassed. We honour statutory obligations,” the HPS said.
According to him, an investment in the Berbice River Bridge is one of the better ones made by the NIS.
Furthermore, the administration is optimistic that the $5 billion owed the Scheme will be returned by CLICO.
“We are awaiting, like many others, a resolution of outstanding legal litigation to have our $5 billion returned to us. We are optimistic, primarily, because a parliamentary resolution, a Minister of Finance and a President have come out in the public domain and have made commitments that the Scheme will never lose its $5 billion. I stand reassured by those commitments,”said Luncheon, who chairs the NIS Board.

Have pledged
Meanwhile, the management and Board of the NIS have pledged to implement more systematic and aggressive efforts to collect hundreds of millions of dollars owed to the Scheme by businesses and self-employed individuals.
The authorities have recognised the challenges facing the Scheme and staff members have been urged to excel in their attention and attitude towards their work.
The Scheme’s major focus for its 45th year and beyond was identified as data and debt management.
“Records for the period 1989 to 1998 remained the major outstanding source of stakeholders’ frustrations, with the scheme and interventions, including in-house projects and major outsourcing activities, are being implemented to conclude by 2014 the incorporation of the 1989 to 1998 information into the scheme’s permanent records,” Luncheon had explained at a previous briefing.
So far as debt management is concerned, he said efforts would be made, from the 45th year onwards, to collect those arrears.
Written By Telesha Ramnarine