-Finance Minister tells graduating inspectors
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh has acknowledged that the NIS still has some ways to go to get its house in order and warned of zero tolerance for employers who fail to submit employees’ contributions.
According to a Ministry of Finance release, the minister delivered these remarks on Tuesday at the National Insurance Scheme’s (NIS) graduation ceremony for twenty new Inspectors, four Customer Service Representatives, two Internal Auditors, and four Nurses for Sick Visitors, held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.
He congratulated the graduates and charged them to approach their jobs in a strictly professional manner and to be proactive and diligent.
During his address, Dr Singh, while acknowledging the 18,000 cases that were in backlog or otherwise stuck in the NIS system that government and the NIS have managed to clear up from August 2020 to present, was an indication that “we are not where we need to be.”
“Far too many people attain the age of retirement and then encounter difficulties to get their pension and there are still far too many people who have gone past their retirement age who are still unable to access their benefits from the Scheme,” the minister emphasised.
He however pointed out that often times the responsibility is not that of the NIS, but rather as a result of a number of employers who, despite being lawfully required to pay over their employees’ contributions to the Scheme, do not do so, and as a result, upon attaining the age of retirement, persons then discover that this was not being done or that there were gaps in the payments.
Describing this state of affairs as “not acceptable,” he disclosed that as a result of a targeted and dedicated effort by government and the Scheme with a focus on the security sector, over the last month, they were able to get several private security companies to pay contributions for more than 2,100 security guards for whom they were previously not paying.
As such, Singh made the government’s position as it relates to delinquency quite clear. “This government’s position is that we have zero tolerance for employers failing to pay over NIS contributions to the Scheme,” at the same time, charging 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.
He also stressed that payment of contributions is not an option and is required by law. “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.”
Singh also used the opportunity to appeal to citizens to check on their records and contributions in good time and not wait until they reach the age of 60. He urged self-employed persons as well to contribute to the Scheme and not wait until they are in their fifties or sixties when they will not be able to benefit or be able to achieve 750 contributions, the release added.
