“We need a cultural change in NIS” – Finance Minister

…as Guyana’s lone-standing Olympian medallist unable to access pension

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh said there is great need for a culture change within the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).

During an outreach at Mon Repos Primary School, East Coast Demerara, on Saturday, the Minister stated that “what we’re seeing here is a confirmation of the fact that there are a lot of people out there that are experiencing serious challenges with their interactions with the NIS and serious challenges in accessing their benefits.”
The Minister noted that while the outreaches are bringing to light the challenges persons are having with NIS, they are also helping to provide the opportunity to address to address those challenges.
It was noted that the Minister and his team were successful in addressing the overwhelming majority of the cases thus far through the outreaches and were able to resolve them in a matter of weeks.
Singh expressed that he wants the organisation to be more citizen-friendly.
“I’ve used these exercises to re-emphasise the point that we need a cultural change in the NIS – we need a change that focuses more on addressing people’s concerns in a more timely manner,” he stated.
He further went on to say “I think there’s room for customer service training and I’ve raised that with the Board and the Board agrees fully that there is certainly room for customer service training – and training in rules and procedures and options that are available for addressing disputes…the NIS regional offices need to see this themselves as citizen-focused. They’re there to serve the citizens and to assist people to get their matters resolved within the framework of the rules that govern the NIS of course.”
Additionally, the Minister noted that there are matters that most time cannot be dealt with by the front-line workers, but may have to be “escalated up to the Office Manager, the Area Manager, the General Manager, and then to the Board.”
Unfortunately, this procedure is most times not followed and persons fall victim to the royal run-around.
“We need to develop SOPs where they don’t exist, and where they do exist, we need to disseminate them so that all of the staff know what is the process and how to deal with a matter when they can’t resolve it at their level, they should know what are the options for escalating it to deal with the matter.”

Unable to access
Meanwhile, Guyana’s lone-standing Olympian bronze medallist Michael Parris was amongst the persons that were fortunate to have their issues resolved during the outreach.
He stated that he had turned 60 about three years ago, and was unable to access his NIS contributions.
“I always prayed and asked God to let that dream come true, and it come true when I met Mr Ashni Singh…so it feels great. I always say that, okay, I do this for the country and no [NIS] pension and now Minister Ashni come and rectify it, so it’s a pleasure.”
The outreach dealt with issues such as compliance certificates, contribution statements, registration & replacement of NIS cards, signing and submission of life certificates, submission of claims, and benefits and pension queries.
In December 2020, during a presidential outreach in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), President Dr Irfaan Ali had called on the NIS to address the issues residents were having with their payments that had been remitted.
In just one month after the commencement of his duties, Dr Singh met with the new NIS Board. At that meeting, he outlined his expectations, charging the Board to ensure these were met.
Last month, the Minister had announced that he would be embarking on a series of countrywide outreaches to meet with residents on the ground and listen to their concerns in relation to any issues they may wish to address with NIS.
This came in light of Government’s expression of grave concern at the number of 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.