Foreign company deducting NIS from Guyanese workers but not remitting payments

Jan 28, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – A Nigerian Company, Century Tamara Logistic Services Inc. (CTLS), is being accused by its workers of not remitting National Insurance Scheme (NIS) payments deducted from their salaries.

Three CTLS drivers -one of them recently fired – brought this to Kaieteur News’ attention on Friday after they went to query their NIS contributions.

The men said that when they visited NIS, they were shocked to learn that no contributions were made since they started working with the company.

Elvis Jones, an Executive Driver has been working with CTLS for a year now and claimed that the company never requested an NIS card from him but was deducting over $6,000 monthly from his salary for NIS.

When he visited NIS office to check up his contributions he was reportedly told by one of the staff there that CTLS might be defrauding him because the company cannot make payments on his behalf unless they are in possession of his account number (A number found on his NIS card).

“These people never took an NIS card and yet they taking out money from me”, Jones iterated.

Jones said that he is an interdicted cop and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) stills pays NIS for him so he decided to intervene by stopping the company from deducting more money from him and reimburse the amount they never paid.

“I ask them not to take out my NIS. I had to bring in three police statements to prove that they are paying NIS on my behalf”, Jones said.

The company stopped deducting the money but have refused to reimburse some $38, 921 they failed to remit to NIS.

“This is something that has been going on since I start work with the company and I am not the only one… there are many more who have the issue with CTLS,” Jones alleged.

Jones’ story was corroborated by two other drivers. The second driver, Ryan Anderson was employed with the company for over two years and was fired in December last year.

Anderson said after he was dismissed he went to check on his NIS payments only to learn that his last contribution was made two years ago.

“When I go in to the people them dem tell me that the last contribution by the company that I was working with before CTLs and duh was two years ago”, Anderson alleged.

The man said he was taken aback because every month his pay slip showed that NIS was being deducted from his salary.

He has since informed the company that it owes him over $100,000 in payments.

Anderson said too that thousands of dollars were taken out from his salary for two certificates -First Aid and Defensive Diving – but he never received them.

A third driver Shelvin Hercules repeated a similar story to Kaieteur News.

This newspaper contacted CTLS and a representative within its Human Resource Department said that the company is unaware of any such issues.  The woman said that it is news to her and has advised affected workers “to come in and rectify any problems they may have”.

When asked if the company has made any payments to NIS on behalf of its employees, the representative said that it is confidential information and she cannot comment.

CTLS had in 2020, set-up shop in Guyana and has ties to a Nigerian, Ken Etete, who has been linked to a US$1.3B oil bribery scheme in Nigeria, funded by Super Majors, Royal Dutch Shell and ENI.

According to reports CTLS is part of a Nigerian group of companies called Century group, for which Ken Etete is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

In order for one to understand Ken Etete’s involvement in Nigeria’s US$1.3B corruption scandal, there must first be the understanding of the central role of his uncle, Dan Etete, former Nigerian Oil Minister.

In 1998, while in the office, Dan Etete granted the rights to a Nigerian oil block: OPL 245 to his own company, Malabu Oil & Gas, in a corrupt and illegal transaction.

A lot happened in the decade which followed, including Dan Etete being convicted for money laundering and was investigated by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. All of this, Shell and ENI knew when they made a payment of over US$1.3B in exchange for the transfer of rights for OPL 245.

Most of the money did not to go the Nigerian government. The African nation’s government alleges that the funds went to paying Dan Etete and his associates, and providing bribes and kickbacks to Nigerian government officials as well as senior executives of Shell and/or ENI and/or their agents and intermediaries.

According to documents filed in 2018 by the Nigerian Government in a British High Court of Justice, a substantial amount of the money went toward paying a series of companies owned by oil magnate, Abubaker Aliyu – an ally of Dan Etete.

The Nigerian government noted that, according to Italian prosecuting authorities, US$411M was transferred to Rocky Top Resources, in which Dan Etete and his nephew Edward Keniwenimo ‘Ken’ Etete were identified as directors.

The court documents state that ownership of the company was subsequently transferred from Abubaker Aliyu to Dan Etete, who spent much on lavish personal expenditure for himself and his family.

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• company, deducted, Nigerian, NIS, payments, salaries

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