Dear Editor,
As one who is quickly approaching the age for my NIS pension, I wish to ensure that the National Insurance Scheme is vibrant and well. The government of the day has the responsibility to ensure that this scheme is managed in a most professional manner, and to institute laws with steel claws that bite. The law should be that any employer who collected NIS and did not pay it in cannot declare bankruptcy; they must pay or go to jail. The law must be that the defendant has to prove his innocence, and not the NIS prove him guilty.
Theft of any funds collected for a purpose or on behalf of another is fraud, and charges should be laid against people who do not remit NIS funds (such as the self-employed), and employers who collect workers‘ monies for the NIS. Immediate action should be taken in such cases and it should not be hoped that cajoling will be of any use. As soon as the summons is delivered monies will start coming in.
I am ashamed to say that I know of security services which do not remit their workers‘ NIS contributions, in order to enrich themselves, while depending on their workforce as their most precious natural resource. Again, the same applies to GRA and VAT. Some security services, some in GAPSO and some out of it, specialize in stealing VAT as a source of income for their personal aggrandizement. People who defraud NIS, will do the same with the GRA in respect of VAT.
This nonsense must end! No one must feel politically connected and protected when they commit fraud, cause social destruction, affect people‘s lives and place pressure on the government and its agencies in caring for the elderly. If workers got their pensions and benefits after a lifetime of work, they would not be in the streets and they would not end up in shelters. Today, when parents get old and cannot handle themselves financially, children sometimes put them out of the house.
It is high time that people are blacklisted from getting NIS compliance when they defraud NIS or the GRA of funds; sweet talking with political connections must not work. We have seen how the representatives of a powerful entrepreneur physically assaulted NIS inspectors and were never charged. No government should ever allow this. Then we know of corruption within the NIS and tax departments. But we have seen how the Commissioner General deals with any corrupt officers. I always applaud him for this. NIS needs to do likewise.
The carelessness in record-keeping at NIS existed since the Burnhamite era, and trickled down to this dawn of the new era. If they are in trouble because of negligence then they deserve it.
I am very emotional over this issue because I am involved with the Guyana Islamic Forum and the Masjid Al-Munawar, where we feed over 12 hundred people three or four times weekly with a nutritious and delicious meal, inclusive of the Palms, the street people, the children‘s drop-in centre and the Dharm Shala. I listen to their miseries, their pain and how their employers never paid their NIS, or they had to leave the home as they could not contribute; many have developed mental health issues. The government tries to house and feed them, provide medicine and hygiene in fairness, but if the NIS were paid to deserving people, there would not be such a major problem in the country. I hold the NIS management, a few corrupt officers (they were worse during the Burnhamite era), and even the government of that era and this government responsible. No one in government should excuse themselves. They should accept and try to save the scheme, admit their shortcomings and move on.
Yours faithfully,
Roshan Khan
