NIS will be at Giftland on Saturday, Parika on Sunday as countrywide outreach starts

Addressing a number of issues relating to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance Dr. Ashni Singh will be embarking on countrywide outreaches starting from Saturday, July, 17, 2021.

In a statement on Thursday, the Ministry of Finance announced that the Minister along with a team from NIS will be at several locations to provide services relating to Compliance certificates, Contribution statements, Registration & replacement of NIS cards, Signing and submission of Life Certificates, Submission of Claims and Benefit and Pension queries.   

Saturday’s outreach is slated to be held at the Giftland Mall, Turkeyen, Georgetown between 10:00h and 20:00h.

Following his appointment to the post in December 2020, a new NIS Board was appointed comprising Mr. Ramesh Persaud as Chairman and Board members Ms. Holly Greaves (ExOfficio), Mr. Faizal Jaffarally, Ms. Yvonne Pearson, Mr. Maurice Solomon, Mr. Satanand Gopie, Ms. Kathleen Jason, Mr. Seepaul Narine and Ms. Jillian Burton-Persaud.

The reality of the depth and seriousness of concerns affecting contributors to the National Insurance Scheme was exposed during outreaches by President Irfaan Ali and his cabinet when they embarked on countrywide outreaches earlier this year.

Dr. Singh met with the NIS’ Board of Directors where he noted that the Government Insurance company is faced with many challenges. As such, he said “it is therefore going to take a lot of work to return the Scheme to long term financial viability.”

The Minister cited steady complaints received from contributors about delays in receiving their benefits and entitlements most often as a result of incomplete records of their contributions to the Scheme.

At that meeting, he had tasked the Board with addressing this problem immediately in order to ensure that public satisfaction with the level of service provided by the NIS improves urgently.   

Since then the NIS has taken a number of steps to address several matters as flagged by the Senior Minister.   

Saturday’s outreach will be followed by second activity at the car park at Parika in Region Three on Sunday, July 18, 2021 from 10:00 to 16:00h.

Additional Outreach locations and dates are expected to be announced later.