Latest update February 4th, 2025 9:06 AM
Internal “house cleaning” recommended for NIS at public meeting
In a public meeting held at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) last week, concerned citizens invited to share their queries and opinions on the financially struggling state company, said that one major factor for renovating the NIS is an “internal cleansing of the institution.”
A concerned NIS contributor highlights his concerns.
The meeting centered on the way forward for the scheme since it had been recently highlighted that within a short number of years, the NIS would reportedly go broke. Apart from the numerous external issues that the participants had said were plaguing the scheme, they noted that there had to be very essential internal fixtures which would assist the firms refreshment; especially in the “easily additive” area of corruption.
They noted that some of these issues were the work conditions and political interference.
A contributor to the NIS, Mervin Williams, said that there must be reform for the conditions under which the NIS staffers operate. He first spoke of inspectors who operate on behalf of the scheme. Williams told the head table which included, the NIS General Manager Terry Thomas, Directors Denise Miller, Linda Gosai, Earl Welch and Chitraykha Dass, that the scheme, “Cannot strength compliance at the expense of its travel officers.”
Compliance, it was noted, is the part of the scheme that ensures that businesses and employees comply with NIS regulations. Williams argued that for the past 20 years, traveling officers of NIS have been benefitting from the same rate of travel. Commuting allowance, he said, had been stopped for more than 20 years.
This is very difficult, Williams indicated, since one would have to spend one’s own money to go to the business places and sometimes, he noted, these places would be in very far locations. Apart from that, it was noted that travelers have been promised duty free concessions and to date this is still to manifest.
In the apartment that houses the compliance staff, Williams said that the conditions are unbearable and invited anyone to visit the office. He said there was no proper drinking water; there was no air conditioning and poor lighting.
The working conditions, he said, are not what they ought to be. “It’s hot, the lighting is poor; there is no available drinking water for employees or visitors to the section.”
“We have to start by cleaning house if we want to strengthen compliance.”
It was indicated that corruption was not an overlooked factor. The issues immediately in need of remedying could be contributing to the scourge.
Political interference was identified by Christopher Ram as taking a toll on the firm since business owners would reportedly use their political affiliations and subvert NIS regulations, Williams said.
He added that it was difficult for inspectors to function properly since they do not have statutory power to take action against those flouting the system.
As a means of rectifying the current state of the NIS, Christopher Ram offered legal assistance for free. He said this had been done a long time ago but the NIS officials had not even responded. He renewed the offer and noted that he was looking forward to aiding the firm.
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