Tuesday, November 10, 2009
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$10.2M in NIB arrears collected By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: Crediting the National Insurance Board's recent willingness to prosecute delinquent employers, NIB's Senior Manager for Contribution Revenue Greg Collie said yesterday the company is having a banner year, having collected $10.2 million in arrears. According to Collie, this is over one million dollars more than the projected amount and the most in any single year for NIB. Collie said NIB is on track to collect more than $12 million in arrears by year's end. Noting that the improved collections are being made during difficult economic times, he suggested that more significant collections could occur when conditions improve. He added that previous years' arrears collection numbers were "nowhere close" to what has been collected this year. In recent months, NIB has brought numerous business people before the courts, with some companies reportedly owing close to half a million dollars since the beginning of this year. "Prosecution is our last resort," Collie said. "We don't really get any pleasure from doing it. But at the same time, when you see a matter gets before the court, it means that we have done all we can to try to work with the employer and the self-employed person to come up with a settlement that we can work with, and failing that then we are forced to send the matter to court." Collie added, "We have an obligation to collect all that is due to the NIB fund. We have the awesome responsibility of providing benefits to the population as a whole and we intend to be good stewards to ensure that those funds are collected on a timely basis." Some of those prominent businessmen that NIB has prosecuted include Jones Communications CEO Wendall Jones, Solomon's Mines Managing Director Mark Finlayson, Global United Limited CEO Jackson Ritchie, Bertha's Go Go Ribs owner Mervin Sweeting, and More FM Director Galen Saunders. Cumulatively, those men owed close to $2 million in delinquent contributions. Many other businessmen have also been charged with failure to pay NIB contributions since the beginning of the year. While not discussing specifics, Collie said most of the people charged have made arrangements to pay off their debt. NIB took the no-nonsense approach to prosecute delinquent employers since an amnesty the company extended for delinquent employers to come in and settle accounts ended on December 31, 2008. Collie said the policy has been so successful that NIB will continue its aggressive approach to revenue collection. "We have an excellent team of inspectors who are responsible for going into the field, looking at the books, ensuring that the employers are paying at the correct rate and are paying for the correct number of persons that they employ and that the self-employed persons meet their obligations," Collie said. "At the end of the day when the employee and the self-employed person finishes working, they want to come in and collect their pensions. We want to make sure that everything is intact, that the records are in place and we want to be able to pay the benefit and that these persons are satisfied with what they receive." Collie also said NIB is having a successful year overall, having already collected $134 million up to the end of October. He said the board is projected to collect $154 million this year.
Wednesday November 4, 2009 |
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