Money collected for the dead
Fourteen employees of the pension department of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), Brickdam office were yesterday sent home as investigations intensify into the discovery of a fraud in that department.
Stabroek News understands that the fourteen were sent packing yesterday morning leaving the department with a virtual skeletal staff which includes the pension officer, the head of the department, and several other junior employees. The interdiction of the 14 comes on the heels of the firing of five employees last year. This newspaper was told that the pension officer may also be let go of very soon.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, at a press conference after the November discovery had said that the fraud involved just under one million dollar and that the board was advised that there were “corrupt practices by some members of staff in the pension branch by the falsification of records,” which allowed them to receive monies of pensioners who had died. He had said the investigation targeted specific members of staff after conclusive evidence of involvement was discovered.
Dr Luncheon had said that the police were called in and that they were also investigating the fraud which dates back to 2006. He said that the management was given the approval of the board to move ahead “quickly to bring this matter to a closure.” Stabroek News was told that while the police were called in no charges have been instituted as yet as the lawmen are continuing their investigations.
Attempts by this newspaper to secure a comment from the Public Relations Officer of the NIS, Dianne Baxter-Lewis, on the issue proved futile as she said she could not comment without the permission of the Managing Director. A promise to return the call never materialised.
However, Stabroek News understands that there was no evidence implicating any of the dismissed employees. One source told this newspaper that the persons who were sent home, including the cashiers, were involved in transactions somewhere or the other and may have unknowingly been involved in the fraud. “They may not have been directly involved but were part of the chain during their normal course of duty,” the source said. All the cashiers would have signed vouchers and others who distributed these vouchers during that period have not been caught up in the web.
According to the source the forging of vouchers was done in such an “authentic manner” that it would have been difficult for those cashing the vouchers or even signing them to detect that they were forged.
“They are just running crazy sending people home. It is like a scare tactic as no real analysis is being done of the situation. It is a mad scramble perhaps to send a message or to please the politicians and to show that they are taking action,” the source said.
The source said that many persons at the Brickdam location are now scared as they empathise with their colleagues who have now lost their jobs at the beginning of the year with no evidence implicating them in any wrongdoing.
The source said that the department is now a shell of what it is supposed to be as those there are junior clerks who were hired after the five were sent home last year. And according to a source it is difficult to determine how much money is involved in the fraud, which became known following a tip from a member of the public, as the authorities would have to identify and contact all the pensioners who on paper received monies during that period to ascertain whether they were alive and whether they indeed cashed their vouchers. The source said it was not vouchers in the names of dead pensioners alone that were involved but also vouchers of pensioners who never visited the office to cash their vouchers.
Several years ago there was a larger fraud involving pension payments between the Ministry of Human Services and the Guyana Post Office Corporation.
The fraud ran into millions and employees of both agencies were incriminated but no charges were brought.
The NIS has been one of the most corrupt offices in the Guyana Gov’t for some time now. I’ve got first hand experience with them. In 2001 I accompanied my Mom back to Guyana for 5days, because she had some kind of business to look after at the NIS.
We visited the NIS office on Brickdam twice a day for four of the five days…Watu, talk about getting the royal run-around with the blank stares. After four days of haggling and fighting with them about some senior official signature, they eventually called security to kick me out of the building, when I told my Mom not to pay the bribe money they were asking for. And that dude was probably sitting in his office all along.
Do you know the ‘kicker’ in this story?? The NIS benefits legally due to my Mom dwarfed the cost of the air fares for both of us flying to Guyana. I only went along with this insanity, because my Mom is a die-hard old fashion Guyanese, who was determined about collecting the small piece entitled to her. Plus the rest of the family agreed that the short trip may be what the doctor ordered.
I’m glad that finally they are doing something about the corruption at the NIS.
i said before it was going on way back in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Remember you are innocent, until proven guilty. But if their are found guilty, jail every single one of them. These places need to be fully computerize, too much paper work. And they have been known, to disappear.
New Year, make a clean sweep! These are the people that make the third world status permanent. Guyana cannot move forward if we have OFFICIALS IN GOVERNMENT leading by example that corruption is a normal and acceptable practice. Bribery is a given in every government office, I am applauding the effort to stamp out this awful practice by government employees.
I have had to do legal businness in Guyana and was shocked that I had to bribe the lawyers’ secretary to get her to do the paperwork in a timely manner. The post office employee told me the amount of the bribe needed to handle my paperwork. Time constraints made me a willing participant in the greed of these employees.
Debbie, I agree with you, plus they work like SNAILS. The day technology ketch with them. A lot of them ,will be out of a job, unless they change, their LAZY DISHONEST ATTITUDE.
Robbing the dead…Shame, lock them up tight at Brickdam Lockups..
There are many things that are disturbing about this story. I’ll just highlight two of them.
First an in-depth investigation was not done to determine who should be interdicted and place before the court. None will be done either, that is why they sent home who they suspect might be involved. Guyana Police Force does not know how to properly carry out a forensic investigation involving financial fraud. That is how the handle all cases involving fraud.
Secondly, the system used at NIS favors the government and they won’t change it. Fraud is nothing new to that department and they very well know what should be in place to properly track the movement of funds.
Some of the comments above praise the removal of the staff; however I don’t know for sure that they are ALL guilty. I would not be so hasty to condemn them to that faith.
i worked for 11 years with the government and only 1 year is showing that i worked with the government at the N.I.S office
the employees resell the stamps.
Since I’ve been working since 1985 I’ve always made all eligible claims for sickness, glasses, dental care, etc. I’ve a clear trail of records since 1985. You need to fall sick now and then and claim from NIS.
The thieves are all over Start with the office of the President and work your way down all of them doing the same thing,it goes two ways in Guyana Big time or small time for example the wild life fund where is the money?
My father worked for over 30 years, but did not even have 750 contributions. Now I know who took it !!!