The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

A LACK of “specific written policy guidelines” at the National Insurance Board is one of the biggest problems that NIB faces, National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson said yesterday.

Speaking outside Cabinet, the minister also said details of the latest NIB forensic audit will be made public once the government arrives at a “comprehensive position”.

However, he refused to go into detail regarding the audit, including what exactly the report is on, who is in charge of carrying the audit out, and the date the report will be made public.

“Until we are ready to release it, I’m not prepared to discuss it now,” he told the press. “I don’t want to release bits and pieces of information. I want to release all at one time.”

He dismissed claims of secrecy surrounding the audit, explaining he only wants to wait for the “appropriate time” before details of the report are released – however, he would not say when that time will come.

“The disadvantage of releasing information in bits and pieces is people don’t get a full understanding of what’s going on and the rationalisation behind it,” Mr Gibson said.

“The idea now is to wait until we have a comprehensive position and then we will release the information to the public so they can get a full understanding and appreciate what we’re doing.”

The Tribune understands that officials are conducting a probe into the operations of NIB’s National Prescription Drug Plan, which was launched in 2010.

When asked if any action will be taken as a result of the audit into allegations made against former director Algernon Cargill, Mr Gibson said yesterday he has not received any information from the Attorney General’s office as yet.

“I haven’t seen anything back from them,” he said. “I’m not sure if a decision has been made. I’m still waiting on information on that.”

As for NIB director Rowena Bethel, who formally replaced Mr Cargill at the beginning of July, the minister said he expects Ms Bethel to bring “focus” and “written policies” to NIB – something the board needs more of.

“She has her hands full but I’m very confident that she is able to bring National Insurance around,” he said. “National Insurance has been very productive over the years – I think basically they have met their mandate.

“She is the type of person who would bring focus, introduce more written policies. I think one of the biggest problems over at NIB, now, is that they don’t have a lot of specific written policy guidelines as to how they conduct, not only the operation of the core functions of NIB, but then on the construction side, as well – the development side.

“Because you know when NIB started out, it was not anticipated that they would be doing all of these developments, constructions, on behalf of the government; and now with the investment arm of NIB, it’s taken off, so I think it’s appropriate now for us to have clear, direct policy guidelines that speaks specifically to all of the functions being carried on at NIB at this time,” he said.