President Ali needs to give orders on how missing NIS contributions are to be handled 

Oct 30, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor, 

Kaieteur News – President Ali has intervened and asked NIS to “close” files by the end of the year. Does the President want files simply to be “closed, not solved” or “closed, solved?” I believe the President, leading with the heart, was moved with compassion when he has been getting so many complaints people have with the poster child for governmental incompetence – the Humpty Dumpty agency – the NIS.

I believe the President needs to tell the Chair of the NIS Board that he wants files “closed, solved,” because the Chair is telling me that my 88-year-old cousin who has been given the run around for 28 years, has to show proof of contributions missing for one year. The Chair must not have gotten the President’s memo. My cousin has 740 contributions according to the NIS records provided but the NIS records are missing 48 contributions for the year 1984.

At first, they told him they don’t have a record that he worked for Bermine. The Chair wants my cousin to provide documentation for the missing year. How can he do that? Back in the 1970s and 1980s, NIS did not mail/provide contribution statements.

There were no computers to check if the NIS was doing their statutory duty to make sure all employees contributions were documented. It is not the employees’ job to do that. NIS is a mandatory scheme. They take out NIS contributions from your pay whether you like it or not. If the NIS failed to do its job, do you blame the employee?

The employee finds out the NIS has not been doing its job tracking and documenting your contributions only when you reach 60 years and you apply for NIS. Only then you are finding out the NIS had not been doing its job properly, and they send you on a wild goose chase to track down former employers to get records, if any.

If the NIS Chair wants documentation, where will the employee get that, when the missing year was 40 years ago? You have to go to NIS and they will tell you, they don’t have that. The employer, Bermine, has been closed down for a long time. So due to problems of the system, not the employee, Mr. President, do we as a country deny the employee his or her benefits?

Is that fair? Is that justice? Is this, “Because We Care?” While Exxon is allowed to rape our country’s resources aided and abetted by the Government, would we tell senior citizens and poor people no NIS benefits for you, go away and die soon so we don’t have to pay you? Use some of the incoming profits from the US$214 audit funds to pay the people what belongs to them! Aren’t we the fastest growing economy in the world?

If contribution records are missing because of the negligence and failures of the NIS to do its statutory duty that does not mean the employee did not work for that missing period; it simply means the NIS did not do its job to secure contribution records.

NIS should be punished, not the employee. If the records are missing, NIS cannot conclude you did not work, or prove you did not work! My cousin provided two credible statements from his colleagues at Bermine– one from the former Personnel Manager at Bermine, and one from an employee he supervised.

Both the NIS Chair and the NIS Manager at New Amsterdam told us that it was all that was needed, if contributions cannot be found. Now, they are still saying my cousin needs proof that he worked in 1984. Given how NIS operated in the 1980s, it is impossible for the employee to provide proof for the missing contributions.

So how do we resolve this impasse without filing lawsuits? (Most NIS lawsuits have sided with the employees). The President must provide some directives on how to handle the missing contributions in these kinds of cases that date back for decades. It is immoral and wicked for NIS to deny any employee their benefits when they have faithfully contributed to the mandatory NIS. It is time for NIS to pay up.

The NIS should be ashamed and the Minister, the NIS Board, and Government should be saddened, if not ashamed, that after 28 years of being pushed around, my 88-year-old cousin is no closer to getting his benefits paid. The PPP has been in power for 23 of those past 28 years and this problem has not been solved.

My next article will show how Minister Ashni [Singh] on numerous occasions has indicted the NIS for having incomplete records and for being inefficient. Guidelines have not been put into place to deal with situations such as my cousin’s where people worked, the records are incomplete, and NIS denies them their rightful benefits.

There needs to be some reforms in the NIS procedures to address this problem of missing contributions using remedies that are equitable and reasonable. And for those people way below the threshold of 750 contributions, use a formula to pay partial monthly benefits. Use a sliding scale. A better solution is revamping and modernizing the NIS operating on ideas from the 1960s.

We need the Government to reach deep down to its Jaganite roots where we care about the plight of the working people. The NIS bureaucracy and Board come over as ruthless and callous. There are not enough bad words to describe giving an 88-year-old man the run around for 28 years. In the meanwhile, a group of concerned citizens are discussing the formation of a Civil Society “Advocates for Victims of NIS” group, to monitor that the President’s initiative stays on track, and that “NIS” is not a “SIN” against poor people. More details to be provided.

Government should realize 60,000 people getting NIS is 10-12 seats. Add in Old Age Pensioners and that’s additional seats.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jerry Jailall

• Bermine, contributions, Dumpty agency, employees, governmental, President Ali