THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) owes the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) more than $218M for workers’ remittances, acting Town Clerk Sherry Jerrick announced on Tuesday.

The Local Government Commission (LGC) has written to the M&CC informing that NIS wrote to the body regarding the failure of local government agencies to honour their obligations.

According to Jerrick, while the municipality has been keeping up with current payments, NIS is asking that the council makes a payment schedule for the years outstanding.
NIS reminded that the non-payment may result in the disenfranchisement of payment of benefits that were entitled to council employees. “It is a statutory requirement for you to pay on behalf of your employees,” NIS said.

NIS cautioned that through such non-payment, the state of debt continues to increase. The LGC has therefore instructed that the council submit to the NIS a payment schedule of the mentioned outstanding remittances to enable computation of the real debt and actualise its settlement.

The commission also asked to be provided with monthly status updates regarding NIS payments.

A number of businesses and individuals are in default of their NIS contributions. Some of the companies listed as outstanding include Camex Limited; Courtney Benn Contracting Service Limited; Fly Jamaica Airways Limited; New Thriving Chinese Restaurant; Strategic Action Security Services; Brian Chase and Ingrid Chase Mining and Trucking Service;

Hopkinson Mining Security Services Inc.; Kwakwani Utilities Inc.; Camex Security Services Inc.; Shivraj Investments Limited; Universal Group of Companies Inc.; Guyana Football Federation; Awad N. Boodhoo General Store; Atlas Security Service Inc.; Amazon Security and Investigation Services and Sentinel Security Inc.

Director on the NIS Board, Mervyn Williams, told the Guyana Chronicle last month that the decision to make the names public came from the level of the board and is intended to alert the employers of the importance of making timely payments.

According to the National Insurance and Social Security Act, Chapter 36:01, the NIS system was established to provide pecuniary payments by way of old age benefit, invalidity benefit, survivor’s benefit, sickness benefit, maternity benefit and funeral benefit.

It also serves to substitute for compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Ordinance, a system of insurance against injury or death caused by accident arising out of and in the course of employment or resulting from disease due to the nature of employment.