The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR Minister Shane Gibson said yesterday that the findings of the National Insurance Board’s (NIB) forensic audit were “worse than I thought they would be”, adding that based on what he had seen thus far amendments to operational policies and procedures were necessary.

Mr Gibson,who has ministerial responsibility for NIB, could not say when the findings of the audit by Grant Thornton, which were officially handed to him this past Sunday, would be made available to the public.But he said he was shocked by the findings of the over 100 page report.

“I had a chance to look at the auditors report. I’ve had a brief look at it,” Mr Gibson said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s shocking to me. It’s even worse than I thought it would be. Hopefully after we would have had a chance to have it properly scrutinized, and I receive advice for my colleagues in the Attorney General’s office, hopefully in short order we could be making some decisions to the way forward. We would have to make a decision as to how we react to the report.”

Mr Gibson added: “Based on what I see we would have to look at amending our operational policies and procedures. We need some clear guidelines as to the levels of authority. We need to make it clear as to who would have individual authority versus the Board having authority.

“I think that one thing that is very apparent is the fact that some individuals thought that their position gave them more authority than it did. We would have to review all of those things and make sure at the end of the day National Insurance is able to meet the needs of those who contributed.”