Dear Editor,

Recently an employee of a well-known establishment for which I work approached the NIS for a spectacles voucher only to be told that they have thirty contributions. This member of staff has been in our employ for nearly two years, contributions are paid monthly and we are visited on a regular basis by an NIS inspector.
This reflects badly on our company.

I made a few calls to NIS that very morning and was told that that particular employee among others had “an unposted balance” – for what reason, I don’t know. That unposted balance would represent I would assume contributions for part of 2007 and up to the current period.

My point is, if NIS knows that they are experiencing problems with their data processing they cannot just give to the contributor inaccurate information without doing a thorough check.

A few years ago I can recall that NIS embarked on computerizing their system. I was privileged to work with one of the outsourced companies and if I am not mistaken NIS still has contract workers who do strictly data entry. It seems that this exercise was a waste of taxpayers’ money, since the information available to the public is no better than before computerization!

Time and again I would enquire from the inspector the reason why our company’s name was not being published in the papers informing us that our employees’ contribution statement was available. The response would be they were not ready.

During the ’90s when I worked for a mining company for about four years, it was my responsibility to pay the NIS; these payments I made myself and lo and behold when I approached the records section to have an update on my contributions, four were missing.

From this experience it tells me that many persons are being made to suffer at the hands of NIS, which is not necessarily the fault of the employers.

The board members should not only seek investors, they should look after the interest of the average Guyanese who sis so dependent on this scheme.

Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)