NIS ups pressure for returns on Berbice Bridge investments

NIS Chairman, Dr. Surendra Persaud with Mahendra Persaud, a staffer who worked for over 40 years at the entity. The National Insurance Scheme (NIS), facing challenges of finding new incomes, says it is placing significant emphasis on an aggressive investment program. Speaking Monday at the entity’s continuing 48th anniversary celebrations, Chairman of the Board, Dr. Surendra Persaud, disclosed that the sad reality is that the NIS has not had an investment policy with little progress made. “When the new board came into being, the NIS did not have even an Investment Manager much less a department. Recently we have again placed an advert and hopefully we can find someone with the qualifications for this position.” He noted that two investmentsCLICO and the Berbice River Bridge have been heavily criticized. However, with the assistance of the Government of Guyana, the CLICO loss had been addressed. Over the next 10 years, the NIS will recover a majority of the original principal. However, this would mean that NIS lost out on the potential of the over $5B which was sunk into CLICO. The second was the investment in the BBCI (Berbice Next year, NIS is readying to spend a considerable amount of time on its investment portfolio. “It will be a two-step process- the first on the realignment of the portfolio with the Prudential Framework and then a relook at that framework to determine how it should be tweaked to meet the changing needs of the NIS. Finally this year we expect the actuarial review to be done. This review will hopefully reflect on the many challenges facing the NIS and propose the changes that could cope with these new realities.” He said that the board as well as all policy makers will spend a significant part of 2018 wrestling with those recommendations. (Kaieteurnews.com)