Name Them!

Senator wants employers called out for not paying in NIS deductions

Employers who deduct National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions from workers’ salaries but refuse to pay them into the agency should be named and shamed, says a member of the Senate.

Independent Senator Andrew Mallalieu made the suggestion as he questioned what was being done to recoup the money owed by businesses who withhold NIS contributions.

“I think it is time we decide a threshold – maybe it’s $5 000, $10 000, $1 million…. But we should publish the roll of those companies and employers who have failed in their obligation, [who] have taken money from the people and have not paid it over to the fund. Let’s publish it and show it. Why are we hiding from it? So, I’ll like to see a specific measurable way we are going to deal with the arrears,” he said during the debate in the Upper House on Wednesday on the National Insurance and Social Security (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023.

Senator Dr Chelston Brathwaite also expressed the view that any employer who does not pay in NIS deductions “should be dealt with by the full weight of the law”.

During his contribution, he also contended that all efforts must be made to ensure that audited financial statements and annual reports are prepared, provided and laid in Parliament in accordance with established regulations.

He was among several Senators who complained about the lack of annual financial reports from the NIS.

“Mr President, I hope that the creation of the new state enterprise will result in improved service levels and greater accountability and transparency so that the patrimony of the people is protected and conserved for the people’s future,” Senator Brathwaite said, referring to the planned transformation of the NIS into a commercial state-owned enterprise.

“It is clear to me that as we seek to develop our new republic, as we seek to find ways to improve the lot of our people . . . that we will do all to ensure that.”

Speaking to the issue of audits and reports not being presented because they were not done, as highlighted in the Auditor General’s report, Senator Lindell Nurse was optimistic that management of the National Insurance Fund would be improved under the new system.

If not, he said, in the next five to ten years, the Government’s reform hopes would be all for nought and Barbados would be back at square one.

Meanwhile, Senator Mallalieu pointed to the need for Barbadians to adopt a mixed programme of state-funded and private pensions in their retirement plans. At the same time, he urged the Government to reverse laws that made it more difficult for people to save for their old age.

“NIS can’t be the only thing we rely on for old-age pension and those who can afford other forms of old-age pensions for themselves would do so. I hope that, very quickly, the Government will reverse the terrible injustice that was done to us in 2010 when the tax deduction for mutual funds was taken away and that immediately dried up capital going into that part of the market and it stopped people from saving,” he said.