The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard said he is glad government has made a decision on the National Insurance Board, but “we now need to hear what the details are”.

Mr Pintard made the comments yesterday on a morning radio show. It was confirmed by State Minister Myles Laroda with responsibility for NIB that the Davis administration had made a decision concerning the future of the NIB fund.

While Mr Laroda said the government will soon announce its decision on whether NIB contribution rates will increase or not, it was reported by The Nassau Guardian that Cabinet had greenlit a rate increase which is believed to take effect on July 1.

When the radio host brought up the rate hike and the opposition’s position on it, Mr Pintard stated: “We believe that the government has to have a candid conversation with the population about the real challenges and lay out what the options are. Are they looking at, for example, increasing the age of retirement or changing it in the opposite direction? This is an important discussion. What are other jurisdictions doing and to what extent are they taking that into consideration?” he asked.

There have been protests in France over President Emmanuel Macron’s government’s plan to increase the retirement age from 62 to 65.

When the French discontent was brought up, the FNM leader noted: “It has to be on the table looking at the age and that’s why you do analysis. That’s why I’m saying it’s important that the government actually have a discussion with the population. The government needs to collect NIB and there are a lot of high profile Bahamians who for years have been serial violators to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. So the arrears are in the millions and so the government ought to talk about how are we going about collecting the arrears.

“That’s very important as a part of this discussion because you’re not going to just simply increase the rates without also reassuring the public who is already challenged in many ways, you’re not going to do that without saying to them we are doing all we can to hold persons accountable to pay and collect the arrears that are already out there.”

He added: “The other thing that is important is the government has to also reassure the public that it will be responsible in how it makes funds available to government ministries, who are often not paying back on a timely fashion, and if you are making investments, what are you making investments in so that people can be assured you’re not making risky decisions with funds that have to be in place when people need the benefit. So quite frankly, I’m glad they made a decision, because that’s what was important. We now need to hear what the details are.”

He added that many Bahamians benefited from resources from NIB during a very difficult period when persons did not have access to the resources required to feed their family and meet other demands in their lives.

“What you can argue is that when you start talking rate increase, as the government is at the moment, you have to clearly explain to the public what all of those benefits are, and what the new benefits, if any, you are going to introduce and how do you clear away any red tape that prevents persons on a timely basis from accessing those benefits.

“One of the things I talk about often because we see it often during office hours is for women who have not left their marital home, but the husband did … towards the end of his life, he returns home. She takes care of him and he unfortunately passes away, but she can’t access some of the benefits that she is entitled to because somebody has played mischief and say, well, they will not subsisting together or staying together as a couple of something as simple as that multiple persons or women who are unable, they have to verify that he was in the marital home.”