Latest update November 13th, 2024 1:00 AM
Govt. to terminate contracts of companies that fail to remit workers’ NIS contributions – VP Jagdeo
Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo
Kaieteur News – Companies that have not been remitting their employees’ National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions face the risk of having their government contracts terminated and being investigated, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo announced on Thursday.
Jagdeo was speaking at his weekly press conference held at the Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown. The Vice President disclosed that two security companies that failed to remit the contributions for approximately 1700 employees over a three-year period have since paid up.
While a specific figure was not disclosed, the VP said that the payout amounts to over $130 million for the workers who work in Regions Two and Three.
“…I made it clear that if they (the Companies) don’t pay all of the outstanding NIS, they are going to lose the government contracts and also they are going to be handed over to police,” Jagdeo said.
He continued, “So we are not skimping on this effort to tackle all of these things. People can do well in this country, they can do extremely well, (and) they don’t have to act in that illegal manner or greedy manner.”
The Vice President said too that many of the business people “drive fancy vehicles but would not pay the NIS for the poor guy, who is working and can’t get medical care when they need it.”
The government official said that his government is making every effort to ensure that the system works and citizens are treated fairly.
Meanwhile, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh on Wednesday spoke of government’s zero tolerance for employers failing to remit contributions to the NIS. He charged the NIS to immediately ramp up efforts to ensure all employers remit employees’ contributions.
Dr. Singh was at the time speaking at the NIS graduation ceremony for Trainee Inspectors which was held at the ACCC.
During his address, Dr. Singh said that as a result of targeted and dedicated effort by Government and the NIS over the last three weeks to a month, several private security companies that were defaulting have paid over contributions for more than 2,100 security guards for which they were previously not paying.
“This Government’s position is that we have zero tolerance for employers failing to pay over NIS contributions to the Scheme, Dr. Singh said as he charged the NIS to immediately ramp up efforts to ensure that employers are paying over NIS deductions to the Scheme for all of their (the employers’) employees, the Department of Public Information quoted Dr. Singh as saying.
“This is not a discretionary matter; the law requires you to deduct the employees’ NIS contributions and for yourself (the Employers contribution) and to pay it over to the NIS in a timely manner… and I am saying to employers out there today that Government will not tolerate the failure to pay over or remit in a timely manner NIS contributions on behalf of employees, not only current employees but if you have any backlog please make sure that you come in promptly to the Scheme and pay off that backlog,“ the Minister urged.
Meanwhile, Dr. Singh urged citizens to check on their records and contributions in good time and not wait until they attain the age of 60.
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