The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The National Insurance Board’s (NIB) director yesterday pledged to speed-up smart card renewal authorisations for Family Island residents amid complaints of lengthy delays.

Dr Nicola Virgill-Rolle spoke out after an Andros-based businessperson revealed that authorisations being sent from NIB’s Nassau head office were being help up for weeks.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, they told Tribune Business: “We are requesting our letters from here. My wife got her letters from here, and they told me that mine hasn’t come in as yet. So where is there any confusion?

“For us to get a renewal decal, they have to send out for an authorisation letter to get me my decal. Did they not comment on the fact that they did not have any cards as well? My sister-in-law and numerous other people have been told that they can’t get their card.”

Challenging Dr Virgil-Rolle’s assertion that there are no NIB smart cards shortages, the businessperson added: “I have been waiting to renew my card for a matter of weeks now, and they say they have to get a letter and that they have requested a letter from Nassau. They are waiting for my letter to come back so that they can give me a decal to renew my card. This is crazy. It does not fit in any shape or form with what Dr Virgil-Rolle is saying.

“There is clearly a shortage of cards. I didn’t make this up. There is backlog back there. Our local member of parliament (Picewell Forbes) is not up on his constituency. It could have been avoided with simple communication.”

Asked whether the challenges related more to the speed at which NIB’s Nassau headquarters is sending authorisation letters to the Mangrove Cay office, the businessperson added: “That’s true, too, but everybody in Nassau and here who has had that experience says that, yes, there is a shortage of cards and that when they request their cards they are very slow to get them if they get them at all.”

Dr Virgil-Rolle said she was unaware of any delays with authorisation letters, and added: “We send the batch once per week, and that has been the normal process. We have no indication of people waiting for three weeks, but we are liaising with the office managers on a regular basis to understand the circumstances. We have no information on authorisation letters being stalled going into Andros.”

Tribune Business subsequently spoke to Rhonda Ingraham, NIB’s assistant director for core services, who added: “We have no indication of any delays. The managers of both offices in Andros had their teams making calls to registrants to pick up their cards and letters. It could very well be that persons have not been contacted. But cards are available.”

Jeff Moncur, another assistant director responsible for NIB’s core services, added: “Cards are delivered weekly. We actually wait on persons because we have been sitting on cards at the head office for sometimes up to two years.”

Dr Virgil-Rolle added: “We have letters going out once weekly to the Family Islands, but now for any island we will endeavour to have shipments go out more frequently than once a week as the need arises.”