Govt to clear 10,000 pending NIS cases by year-end – Pres Ali

– says outreaches will be held in US, Canada to deal with diaspora issues

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Friday announced that the Guyana Government has taken proactive measures to resolve some 10,000 pending cases within the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) by the end of this year.
Currently, there are approximately 10,000 open files at the NIS dealing with issues ranging from appeals, claims, queries, investigations, and other tribunal matters.
In order to resolve these pending cases, President Ali said during a live broadcast on Friday that he has instructed that a proactive approach be taken to have this done over the coming months. In fact, the Head of State instructed the General Manager of the Insurance Scheme, Holly Greaves, to come up with a proposal by Monday that will ensure the reduction of these pending cases.
“We’re gonna develop a Special Secretariat and a projectised format to bring to an end or to bring to closure, these 10,000 files before the end of the year. So, we will be back in real-time. So, the NIS will be working from now to the end of the year to close these files.”
On the other hand, the Guyanese leader outlined that some of these pending NIS cases are for persons in the Guyanese diaspora and so steps will also be taken to address those at outreaches to be held in the United States and Canada next month.
“So, separate and apart from the nationwide files that we have, we have diaspora files that are open – just about 300-plus. The NIS team in November is going to do what we call a ‘diaspora outreach’. They’re going to do a diaspora outreach in New York in Toronto.”
“So, what we want is numbers with the diaspora to send to the diaspora unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, their issues in relation to NIS with all your supporting documentation so that that can be sent to the NIS now they can start looking at issues and advising you as a status of your claims, your objections or your queries or your investigations. So, I wanted to address this issue, because I know this is an issue that that we want to fix,” he posited.
Since taking office in August 2020, the PPP/C Administration has successfully closed more than 4000 historical cases, both nationally and in the diaspora – a feat that President Ali said on Friday could not have been achieved without the hard work of the NIS staff.
“Over the last two years, they’ve been doing a lot of work to bring to closure. A lot of these files, you know, some most of these persons do not have the relevant records [and the staff] have to go back to where you’re working [but] some of those places are closed down. So, there is a lot of work, background and backroom work that has to be done, but we are committing ourselves to working towards in a specialised way in a projectised way to get this done before the end of the year,” the Head of State stressed.
Meanwhile, efforts by the Guyana Government to improve the quality of service offered by the NIS to contributors and pensioners have proven to be fruitful in recent years.
During the presentation of Budget 2023, it was revealed the Insurance Scheme had disposed of nearly half of its backlog in some two years.
Senior Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh had reported that as of August 2020, the backlog of claims outstanding and on query was 20,106. However, by December 2022, this backlog was reduced to 10,902. Further, of the 1,362,734 suspended and invalid numbers existing in the database, the Scheme was able to resolve 1,103,835 in 2022.
The NIS has historically been the provider of social security when earnings are interrupted by illness or accident, for exceptional expenses related to birth or death, and for retirement by age. In fact, for many pensioners, this is their only source of income.
According to the Minister, it is for these reasons that the efficiency of the operation of the Scheme is critical, because, in many instances, lives, health, and wellness are dependent on this source of income.
To this end, he pointed out that Government has been proactive in its support of the agency and has in the immediate term urged the newly-appointed Board of the Scheme to prioritise: resolving the inherited backlog of long outstanding matters; addressing the deficiencies in the systems within the Scheme; and implementing programmes to improve compliance by delinquent employers to protect the interests of all working people.
Nevertheless, in addition to reducing the backlog, the NIS operationalised the connection for electronic transfers into the national payment system architecture in October 2022. This has resulted in 750 pensioners being paid directly into their bank account at one commercial bank.
“It is anticipated that this will be expanded to cover all commercial banks during 2023, thereby enabling thousands of pensioners to be paid directly into their bank account. In addition, the use of WhatsApp to make claims and submit video-styled life certificate validations served to reduce the need for travel to the NIS office,” Dr Singh had noted back in January.
Dr Singh further disclosed that compliance campaigns and expanded outreaches will continue to be an active strategy to ensure that both employers and workers are educated about the benefits of joining the Scheme. This is especially critical given that the financial viability of the Scheme has over the years depended primarily on the contributors’ payments.
Notwithstanding, Minister Singh had posited that medium- and longer-term solutions, most importantly, continue to be actively examined with a view to ensuring the long-term viability of the NIS.