Dear Editor,
I am a widow and I am trying to contact Mr David Fennell, former President of Golden Star Resources Ltd, High Street, Georgetown (closed down) and now executive chairman of the Manganese Company, Matthews Ridge, Region 1, to ask him why the company failed to pay my National Insurance Scheme contributions, even though NIS was deducted from my salary from January, 1991 to April, 1995 as a security guard.
As a matter of fact, in 2007, I had visited the NIS office and got a shock of my life when no payments were recorded on the print-out. I then questioned why but was told that Golden Star Resources never paid any contributions for me. From 2007 to date, NIS has been investigating Golden Star Resources Ltd. Fr John Persaud tried to help me and he too gave up when NIS failed to merge my Golden Star Resources contributions with the others.
Every month, for almost five years, I have been running to NIS to get my record straight. This has been very frustrating for me because I am wasting loads of money and time.
I am going to be sixty years old in May, and I need Mr David Fennell to give me a letter verifying that all monies due to NIS were paid, so I can have my pension from NIS.
Yours faithfully
(Name and address provided)
Editor’s note:
We sent a copy of this letter to Mr David Fennell and received the following response:
“I have seen the letter that you provided and while I am sure that the writer feels that she has a complaint and if the facts presented are accurate, she has my sympathy. During the period she refers to, Golden Star employed hundreds of Guyanese. Competent human resource and payroll accountants were responsible for dealing with all employees and if contributions were not being made I cannot understand why that was not resolved at the time. On a personal level I was never involved in the hiring or paying of any personnel and cannot comment directly on the writer’s issues, further I resigned from Golden Star in 1998 and have no ongoing responsibility or relationship with that company. I would suggest that she contacts the company directly to resolve her issues.”