The NIS and Burnham

Feb 23, 2026 Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – For a political party that erupts in indignation whenever the failures and excesses of Forbes Burnham are dragged into the limelight, the People’s National Congress (PNC) has a rather selective memory. Forty years after his death, the PNC still bristles at the notion that his name should be invoked as a shorthand for economic collapse, electoral rigging, authoritarian rule, and the racial polarisation that continues to haunt this nation.

Yet, remarkably, the same party now expects Guyanese to don their rose-tinted glasses and genuflect at the altar of Burnham’s so-called “achievements,” demanding recognition for the institutions they claim he built. This hypocritical dance—denounce the criticisms but demand the praise—reveals a party still desperately trying to curate a legacy that the facts simply cannot support.

Just recently, the PNCR heralded Forbes Burnham as the visionary founder of the National Insurance Scheme, attempting to add another trophy to his depleted cabinet of accomplishments. But if the full, unvarnished truth is to be told, Burnham’s role was not that of a visionary creator.

The conception of a comprehensive social security system in this country was not a sudden stroke of genius in the late 1960s; it was a seed planted by the first People’s Progressive Party government of 1953. It was that government, led by Cheddi Jagan, which sought technical assistance from the International Labour Office, leading to the Richardson Study in 1954.

The NIS that finally emerged in 1969 was not a Burnham original; it was the mere culmination of a “legacy project” birthed almost twenty years earlier by the very party the PNC worked to oust.

The then colonial government’s first step was to seek technical assistance from the International Labour Office (ILO). Under that initiative initiated in 1954, Professor Henry Richardson proposed the establishment of a National Provident Fund, a system of forced savings that would provide workers with a lump-sum payment upon retirement. This model was chosen based on Richardson’s assessment that the local wage levels were insufficient to fund a more robust, pension-based social security system, though his report was ultimately set aside for future consideration.

Following a period of review, the PPP government wisely requested a follow-up study in 1962, resulting in the Boye Study. Actuary Sven Boye critically examined the provident fund proposal and advised against it, arguing that the lump-sum benefits would be inadequate for long-term worker protection and instead recommended the introduction of a National Pension Scheme.

This recommendation gained traction, and by 1965, the PNC-UF government commissioned the MacCabe Study to develop a concrete implementation plan. Mr. Niall MacCabe’s report proposed a comprehensive, three-branch social security system covering employment injury, old-age pensions, and sickness with maternity. This proposal was favourably received, marking the definitive steo towards establishing the National Insurance Scheme.

Following the favourable reception of the MacCabe study, the government enlisted someone to draft the enabling legislation. In 1968, an ILO official oversaw the final implementation phase, incorporating key amendments based on the Working Party’s recommendations and this culminated in 1969 with the passage in the National Assembly of the National Insurance and Social Security Act.

By the time Guyana established its scheme in September 1969, the region was already progressing toward formal social security systems, with two other CARICOM nations having implemented similar programmes. Jamaica led the way as the first in the region, establishing its National Insurance Scheme on 4th April 1966, approximately four years after gaining independence from Britain. Barbados followed shortly after, launching its scheme on 5th June 1967, about one year after its own independence.

The question therefore that the PNC should ask is why it took the coalition government, formed in 1964, so long to establish the scheme, following the lead established by both Jamaica and Barbados.

But the record must also show that the NIS was established under Burnham’s PNC. Credit must be given to him for doing that. But by the same token, account must be taken of the economic misery of the time that created future strains for the NIS.

Burnham died in 1985. The annual report of the NIS for that year  presented a rosy picture of a solvent and well-funded National Insurance Scheme. However, a forensic analysis reveals that the Scheme was already exhibiting the classic symptoms of a social security system under stress: a stagnant contributor base, over-reliance on investment returns, mounting administrative backlogs, and growing future liabilities that were not yet fully funded by current contributions.

In 1982, the number of contributors saw a massive reduction because of retrenchment. Economic conditions such as high unemployment and declining formal employment in key sectors reduced contribution inflows at a time when benefit obligations were rigid, weakening the revenue base of the scheme.

While the PNCR is understandably unlikely to cast a critical eye over the record of Forbes Burnham, history cannot be left to partisan applause or selective memory. The National Insurance Scheme did not operate in an economic vacuum, and its financial performance during the 1980s must be assessed on the evidence, not on selective narratives. The public should examine the NIS record under Burnham in its totality, weigh the documented strengths and weaknesses, and resist being blinded by political propaganda that substitutes sentiment for scrutiny.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

 

 

 

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• Cheddi Jagan, Labour Office, National Provident Fund, political party, Sven Boye, This proposal

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