Minister Ashni’s happy talk will not fix NIS, bold restructuring needed

Oct 25, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The news yesterday reported Finance Minister, Ashni Singh as saying, “I am proud of the NIS but the organisation is getting a bad rap because of a few bad eggs and because of a few cases that really are tainting the entire Scheme and so the NIS has an obligation to deliver service in an efficient manner. On the occasion of this 54th Anniversary, I will appeal to you once again to raise the standards of your operation and to deliver efficient service to ensure that everybody that is coming in, that the claims are vigorously dealt with,” the finance minister urged. (Despite all his wickedness, NIS was introduced by Burnham in 1969. Check one for the PNC).

Minister Singh has served long as Finance Minister with responsibility for the NIS. It is still a broken system and all the happy talk and appeals from the Minister will not fix the NIS. This Minister has given many similar speeches exhorting NIS to do better, but very little changes. You get more of the same.  This Minister should know that it takes more than speeches to reform a moribund agency. It takes urgent reforms, restructuring, honesty, decency, and integrity. And these elements are largely missing at the NIS, which needs a dramatic culture change.

The news article said, “Senior Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh yesterday commended the Board and staff of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) for disposing of all 14,000 inherited pending claims since the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s (PPP/C) returned to office in 2020.” Is that true? Does that include that 88-year-old man waiting for 28 years for his missing contributions to be resolved? So why did the President have to issue a decree that the 10,000 cases in the backlog have to be gone by year end? Please get your ‘nancy story straight!

Minister, is it just a few bad eggs in the NIS giving the NIS a bad name or is it a broken system, not fixed during your various terms? The President had to intervene and direct the NIS to complete the 10,000 pending cases.

The news report stated, “A statement from the Ministry of Finance said that the Minister also urged the Scheme’s staff to recommit themselves to ensuring a more efficient and respected entity going forward.” Minister, this sounds like an altar call where the Pastor calls up people to make a fresh commitment to the Lord Jesus! Do you get a “more efficient and respected entity going forward” merely through a recommitment of selves, or through new procedures, new processes, employee accountability, setting time limits on case completion, setting targets for employees, better monitoring of employees, performance evaluation, etc? How about training in excellent customer service where the Minister, General Manager, and others return customers’ calls and honor requests for meetings to discuss employee problems?

“I am proud of the NIS but the organization is getting a bad rap because of a few bad eggs and because of a few cases that really are tainting the entire Scheme and so the NIS has an obligation to deliver service in an efficient manner. On the occasion of this 54th Anniversary, I will appeal to you once again to raise the standards of your operation and to deliver efficient service to ensure that everybody that is coming in, that the claims are vigorously dealt with,” the finance minister urged.

Recently a letter writer related how his 88-year-old cousin was having a runaround with the NIS over his contributions. Singh said that the Government is firmly committed to the Scheme and to ensuring its viability.  “Work has already started, a new Actuarial Review has commenced. The Actuary has met with a number of stakeholders”, he pointed out.

General Manager of the Scheme, Holly Greaves in her remarks at the ceremony expressed gratitude to the Minister, the NIS Board and all staff for dedication and hard work over the years. While congratulating staff on their hard work and for ensuring that the Scheme continues to receive payments and that the vulnerable in society receive their benefits, Chairman of the NIS Board Ramesh Persaud noted as well that the Scheme needed to work further to revisiting rules to ensure that they made sense in today’s society.

“Society has transformed and so will be required of the NIS. The challenges of NIS have to be resolved now,” he said in a charge to the Scheme’s Board and staff, the release said.

A priority of the Government when it assumed office in 2020 was to address the complaints received from contributors to the Scheme with pending claims at the time amounting to 14,000 as at November 2020. In support of this effort, the release said that the Government at Cabinet level, undertook a series of nationwide outreach sessions that took the services of NIS to the citizens, with 12 sessions held in Regions 2,3,4,5,6 and 10. Over 1,300 persons across the country have benefitted from these sessions, many of whom are in receipt of Old Age Pension after waiting for a number of years.  Additionally, all inherited 14,000 pending claims have been resolved.

However, the finance minister said that notwithstanding the progress made, much more remains to be done. Earlier this month, President Irfaan Ali mandated the NIS to establish a Special Secretariat to handle its 10,000-plus backlogged local cases as well as those that originate from in the Diaspora.

The President made clear in an announcement on Facebook Live that he was expecting a resolution to all queries by the end of the year.

In his Facebook Live message, Ali said, “… in the NIS system itself now, we have 10,000 open files which means that we have 10,000 files in which investigations are still going on, files that deal with appeals, claims, queries, investigations, tribunal matters, 10,000 files in total. Just about that we have in the system and this is nationwide. So, I have asked the General Manager of NIS to come up with a `projectized’ approach … We are going to develop a special secretariat `projectized’ format to bring to an end or to bring to a close these 10,000 files by the end of the year.”

Regarding the queries from within the Diaspora, the President asked that persons prepare the relevant documents immediately and send them to the Diaspora Unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “… In the Diaspora, we have (many) persons with outstanding issues…, so apart from the (local) files…, we have (just over 300 plus) diaspora files opened. The NIS team in November is going to do what we call a diaspora outreach – in New York, in Toronto. So, what we want is members of the diaspora to send to the Diaspora Unit, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, their issues in relation to NIS with all their supporting documentation. So, that it could be sent to the NIS now and they could start looking at the issues and advising you about your claims and objections, your queries or your investigations”, he said.

Regards,

Dr. Jerry Jailall

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• Ashni Singh, Dr. Jerry Jailall, Finance Minister, NIS, restructuring

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