SENIOR Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for finance, Dr Ashni Singh, on Tuesday, said that the government expects to see improvements in the services offered by the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).

The Senior Minister made these remarks during NIS General Assembly in celebration of its 53rd anniversary.

While delivering the feature remarks at the General Assembly, Senior Minister Singh mentioned several public outreaches that he had done in collaboration with NIS in order to clear the backlog of problem cases that the Scheme has had over the years.

As such, he mentioned that these outreaches, which have been on pause for quite some time, will continue in the near future in order to troubleshoot and handle the backlog of cases that may still exist.

“I am, once again, tasking the NIS, its Board, its management and its staff to make the rapid transformation that is necessary to eliminate the need for these outreaches,” he said.

To this end, he added that the quality of services that have been provided at these outreaches can easily be provided at the local offices across the country.

Dr Singh said that it is further important to have continuous training efforts in order to build capacity within the Scheme.

Further, he urged the Scheme to continue the rollout of technological solutions and ways in which they can reduce the accumulation of backlog cases.

Meanwhile, the minister said that while a number of persons come forward to query about contributions and more, he noted that every contributor should receive a statement every year in order to handle any discrepancies seen.

“Every contributor should get a statement once a year and be encouraged to regularise and fix any gaps that they observe so they can go immediately to their employer,” Dr Singh said.

Meanwhile, also speaking at the General Assembly was the Chairman of the Board at NIS, Ramesh Persaud who congratulated the hardworking teams at the various offices across the country. He said the Scheme is in service to over 60,000 pensioners a month.

Persaud further praised the staff of the Scheme for ensuring that the set targets are met monthly even as he added that the Scheme also provides social security support to the tune of over $2 Billion every month.

“We are 53 [years since establishment] and we have to survive for 153… the work that you do today will benefit somebody 50 years from now. So, you have to be very diligent and meticulous in what you’re doing,” Persaud said.

Additionally, Persaud said that the main focus of the Board for the last year has been the involvement in the strategic analysis of the Scheme and the completion of the strategic plan.

This strategic plan, he added, will aid in the transformation of the National Insurance Scheme, and further noted that this plan was done with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

This plan is set to improve the public perception of the NIS, increase technological efficiency and deal with the backlog of issues brought up among other things.