Latest update February 10th, 2025 2:25 PM
Govt., Luncheon undermine NIS Board of Directors
…it seems clear they have no idea or respect for their fiduciary duties – Ram
Continuing to do nothing is not an option at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), according to Financial Analyst, Christopher Ram, who has accused the directors, headed by Dr Roger Luncheon, of ignoring years of professional advice on resuscitating the 44 year old institution.
Ram in his latest piece posted on chrisram.net says that the current Board has clearly run out of ideas and should be replaced and the administrative structure of the Scheme has to be modernised.
Ram says too that indecision is not the only bugbear facing the Scheme and that bad decisions just happen to be the flip side of the same coin. He said that for years now, the Scheme has lost income on a deposit investment of some $6B in the failed CLICO.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of NIS, Dr. Roger Luncheon
Financial Analyst, Christopher Ram
“Almost as a set-off it was given the CLICO building bringing the investment and accrued income down to around $5.2B.”
According to Ram, “neither the Chairman nor the Minister of Finance under whose portfolio the Scheme falls has said anything about the recovery of this sum…If that sum has to be written off the Scheme’s reserves would take a huge dent.”
Ram urges that a decision be taken on the CLICO receivable, since keeping it on the books seems increasingly meaningless.
September last marked 44 years since the NIS was launched by Prime Minister Forbes Burnham’s Government, “It also marked twenty-one years of the control of the NIS by the PPP/C Government and the Chairmanship of another Forbes, this time bearing the surname Luncheon.”
Ram says that Luncheon has led the NIS into a state where the Pension Reserves are now being used up by about two billion dollars per year. According to Ram, NIS was a scheme that seeks to balance out its long-term liabilities against its assets and revenues.
The way this is achieved is by way of periodic evaluations carried out by external independent actuaries.
The process, he said, is very scientific and involves a review of all the data on active and past contributors, past and projected future income and expenses – of which pension benefits are always the more significant item – leading to recommendations generally designed to maintain/restore the actuarial balance of the Scheme.
The last three such reports and recommendations by the independent actuaries were done at December 31, 2001, 2006 and 2011.
“The recommendations were largely ignored or worse treated by Roger Luncheon and his directors with such disdain that it seems clear that they have no idea or respect for their fiduciary duties and were just there for the ride.”
Ram said too that apart from Luncheon himself, there are three other directors who have been on the Board since 1992 namely Paul Cheong and trade unionists Komal Chand and Earl Welch. “Their contribution is hard to measure,” said Ram.
He said that “They and their fellow directors have largely sat back and allowed Luncheon and the Government acting as the shadow director to make – or not make – the important policy decisions, including those on the recommendations of the actuary.”
He said that even as the Scheme started to show signs of strain, the Government undermined the board and the viability of the Scheme by straight political considerations.
According to Ram, It is not as if Burnham treated the Scheme more seriously than the PPP/C “but wrong as he was, he had the luxury of time on his hand.”
He explained that any Scheme takes years to mature and no one qualified for a pension until s/he has made 750 equivalent weekly contributions or about fifteen years.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Forward to the past
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News-Guyana’s debt profile, both foreign and domestic, has become a focal point of economic... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
