The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has made a payment of $123 million to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) from its own earnings in an attempt to clear a debt to the insurer which now stands at $475 million.
This announcement was made by Chief Executive Officer Sasenarine Singh, who told media last Monday that the company is working to clear a debt of over $50 billion dollars.
Singh stated that after meeting with all creditors, the company is servicing current debts, including that to the Scheme.
“Between September [and] now, GuySuCo has paid off its 60 to 90 days portion debt and we are now working on the 30 to 60 days portion. We are trying to catch up with NIS, because it is extremely important that GuySuCo be up to date with the Scheme, because of the implication with the work force,” the CEO explained.
He added that the $123 million which was paid on Monday represented two months of contributions owed to NIS and noted that the intention moving forward is to pay an additional two months of contributions every month until the backlog is cleared. The hope is that this backlog will be cleared by June, 2021.
GuySuCo has consistently been in debt and in 2015 owed the NIS $1.5 billion in contributions.
The scheme announced in that year that it would honour contributors’ claims after GuySuCo submitted a payment schedule. Stabroek News had reported at that time that GuySuCo had not been required to pay the interest that is supposed to be surcharged and the company had pledged that worker benefits would not be in danger owing to the delinquency in payment.
Three years later, General Manager of the NIS, Holly Greaves, told the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Social Services that the scheme had served a demand notice to GuySuCo for an outstanding debt of $250 million.
The scheme, she maintained, had planned to take the Corporation to court to secure these funds. This case never materialised.
