as gov’t continues to resolve outstanding matters

IN fulfilment of the commitment made by President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) will be conducting a three-day outreach in New York, United States of America, from November 4 to 6, 2023.

According to a press release, the outreach forms part of the government’s proactive efforts to resolve pending cases within the NIS, and provides an opportunity for the Guyanese diaspora to interact directly with the scheme to have their issues addressed and questions answered.
The details for the outreaches are as follows:

– Day 1 – Saturday 04 November, 2023
Location: Brooklyn, New York
St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church
331 Hawthorne St., NY 11225
Time: 9:00 hours – 17:00 hours
– Day 2 – Sunday 05 November, 2023
Location: Schenectady, New York
Guyanese Community Centre (Hindu Temple)
1052 Pleasant St., NY 12303
Time: 9:00 hours – 17:00 hours
– Day 3 – Monday 06 November 2023
Location: Queens, New York
Liberty Palace and Banquet Hall
130-11 Liberty Ave., South Richmond Hill, NY 11419
Time: 9:00 hours – 17:00 hours

Only recently, President Ali announced the establishment of a specialised secretariat and a projectized format within the NIS, to expedite the resolution process of pending claims.
“I wanted to address this issue. This is an issue that we want to fix and we want to make every effort in a specialised, projectized manner to get this fixed before the end of the year,” the Head of State emphasised.

Senior Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, while delivering remarks recently at the Scheme’s 54th Anniversary ceremony, appealed to the scheme to raise the standards of their operation, and to deliver efficient services to ensure that all NIS matters are dealt with in a timely and professional manner. Dr. Singh also urged the NIS to recommit themselves to ensuring a more efficient and respected entity going forward.

The minister further said that the government is firmly committed to the scheme and to ensuring its viability.
A priority of the government when it assumed office in 2020 was to address the complaints received from contributors to the scheme with pending claims at the time amounting to 14,000 as at November 2020.

In support of this effort, the government at Cabinet level, undertook a series of nationwide outreach sessions that took the services of NIS to the citizens, with 12 sessions held in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and 10.

Over 1,300 persons across the country have benefitted from these sessions, many of whom are in receipt of Old Age Pension after waiting for a number of years. Additionally, all inherited 14,000 pending claims have been resolved.

The three-day outreach to the US will be led by the General Manager of the NIS, Mrs. Holly Greeves.