NIS to be made more accessible to public – Attorney General

Recognising that contributors still face challenges when accessing services from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, said the government is working to ensure they receive better services.

Minister Nandlall underscored that this would be done through drastic changes, which will allow contributors to receive their benefits through a simplified process.

Speaking on his weekly televised programme ‘Issues in the News,’ on Tuesday, the Attorney General pointed out that the administration has acknowledged that matters are still left unresolved.

“More changes are going to be made to ensure that persons who qualify for NIS, receive the benefits to which they are entitled under the NIS Act. NIS is a law and once you comply with that law, then as far as possible, you ought to benefit in accordance with the law.

“Whatever hurdles, administrative and otherwise that are preventing that objective from being realised, we are uprooting them as we go along and making the process more accessible to a wider cross-section of Guyanese entitled under the scheme,” the AG noted. Over the past two years, administrative changes were made by the government to intensify efforts to clear the backlog of matters that were pending and improve the services to contributors.

“For example, many times persons go to the NIS and their documents cannot be found. We have said that once persons have worked in the public sector and that can be established, then there is no need for documents. And there are many little rules like that, that have been implemented to ensure that persons are not unfairly denied or deprived of their entitlements under the NIS,” he stated.

NIS, which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Finance has conducted several outreaches over the past two years. Last month, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Singh revealed that NIS has been able to resolve some 6,000 issues through its outreaches countrywide.

In October 2022, Minister Singh made it clear that the government expects to see more improvements in the services offered by the scheme.