Dear Editor,
It is very sad to continue to hear all the negatives about the services the NIS provides to the poor people. Politicians come and go and nothing changes for the good. Supporters of the current administration will disagree with me in public but will agree with me in the confines of security or their homes. Nothing new about that.
The NIS has been pauperising the hard-working poor of Guyana for a very long time. Only well connected people get the NIS to work for them. Hema Persaud in her letter captioned “NIS does not cover ailments that arise after retirement” (07.02.22) is not unique, she is one of the very few who are brave enough to come forward, the rest are afraid, rightly so. Though far away I am in tune with what is happening in the lost backwaters that sit next to Haiti in the poverty index. Politicians have created the ills that loom over Guyana. The NIS will find money to lend “Businessmen” who cannot get the same from recognised banks/lending institutions. Do the people of Guyana know if moneys are being repaid or not? The NIS is the new GNCB, all of those with top connections get to share the pie.
So far the NIS has not invested wisely to make real money, those at the helm lack business acumen and it takes much more than pen pushers to become stewards to riches. I know of one individual, an old person, who waited in vain for assistance whilst in the main office. That person collapsed and died later, this incident happened several years ago. Courtesy is lacking in most government institutions, this starts from the top. I experienced discourtesy from several ministers in the ’90s. Like all the departments of government in Guyana, the NIS cannot act on its own initiative; it waits for directives from the government and if the director/govt is asleep or indisposed nothing gets done.
Yours faithfully,
Vijay Singh
