The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FORMER golf professional Bobby Rose said the National Insurance Board could not find records of his employment contributions from 1974 to 1984.

Rose, 74, signed up for his NIB pension at age 70. He only receives benefits for contributions made from 1989, when he was employed for about 11 years with a local construction company.

He claims that his monthly pension from NIB should be much more than what he currently receives.

“What they are paying me, I can’t live on that,” he said. "I am starving to death with what they are giving me. If I did not have friends that were helping me out, I would be dead.”

Mr Rose, a well-known golfer, was employed in 1974 as head golf pro at the Shannon Country Club and the Lucayan Country Club. In 1979, he was hired at the Jack Tar Village Grand Bahama Hotel in West End as the director of golf.

In 1984, he moved to Florida for a few years and returned to Grand Bahama in 1989. He managed the Scorpios Restaurant in Port Lucaya for a while and later worked with his brothers as a fisherman before joining the Reef Construction Company.

When he submitted paperwork for his NIB pension four years ago, a clerk told him nothing about him existed in the system before 1989.

“I told her that I have been working here since I got out of high school before NIB came into existence, and I asked where the rest of my records were, and she said that’s all they have,” he said.

Mr Rose was told that he would have to get an affidavit to verify the information concerning his employment from 1974 to 1984.

He said he did this and was informed that processing in New Providence would take four to six weeks. It has now been four years, and still no resolution.

He says he is not the only person this has happened to. His brother, Colin Rose, experienced a similar issue.

Colin Rose told The Tribune yesterday that he provided documentation of his contributions to NIB. However, the matter was resolved in one year.

Bobby Rose said he does not have any of his pay stubs from 1974 to 1984.

“I never kept them because I figured NIB was taking money out of my account, so they should have records of it,” he said.

He also noted that his home in Queen's Cove was destroyed by a hurricane in 1999.