The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday said the National Insurance Board (NIB) plans to prosecute more delinquent employers, and recover all contribution income due to it, amid projections that its $1.6bn reserve fund will be exhausted by 2028.

Myles Laroda, minster of state in the Prime Minister’s Office who has responsibility for NIB, told reporters prior to the weekly Cabinet meeting: “As complaints come in the NIB is prepared to prosecute those individuals for whatever they’re accused of doing.”

He pledged that the social security system will ensure that both delinquent employers and self-employed workers, especially those of the former who have deducted NIB contributions from workers’ salaries but not paid them over, will be “put before the court” and “whatever funds that are outstanding to the individuals who put them there, NIB will seek to have those recovered”.

Mr Laroda added. “In particular, deductions that would have been made out of the employee salaries and not paid into NIB are actually not the possession of those companies or individuals.”

Meanwhile, NIB’s industrial agreement negotiations with the Public Managers Union continue despite the union - which represents its middle managers - obtaining a strike certificate. The union has now given the Government a counter-proposal in response to the latter’s initial offer. “So we sent a counter-proposal to them, they rejected our proposal and countered with another proposal, and we will review their proposal and respond to them,” Mr Laroda added.

“The negotiation is fluid, notwithstanding the fact that they have a strike certificate.” Mr Laroda also addressed “numerous complaints” that beneficiaries are unable to get their benefits from NIB. “We have had numerous complaints. During the pandemic you would see that the process has slowed down considerably,” he added.

“Since we have come to office, we have increased the amount of doctors that are hearing industrial accidents. In the past, there was one. We have a chief medical officer and another officer. We have tribunals in place to hear matters that involve industrial accidents. But we’re also trying to get a hold of the backlog of other matters; claims that would have been placed, and some of them are going back about two years.”

Mr Laroda gave no timeline for when these outstanding complaints will be satisfied, but said it was a “priority” to have them dealt with by NIB to ensure there is improvement in resolving them more rapidly.