Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert, says the board of the National Insurance Board (NIB) is properly constituted, as all of the government, business and labour representatives on the board have been appointed.
In a two-paragraph news release issued yesterday morning, Imbert responded to a column in the Business Guardian, which was headlined 'Is the NIB board properly constituted?'
In his news release, Imbert said: "The Minister of Finance, Honourable Colm Imbert, MP, has taken note of an article in today’s Business Guardian which insinuates that the National Insurance Board (NIB) is not properly constituted.
"Contrary to the impression given in that article, the NIB is properly constituted and all government, business and labour representatives on the board have been appointed."
Yesterday's release from the Ministry of Finance did not name the government, business and labour representatives on the NIB board.
The Ministry of Finance's corporate communications department did not immediately respond to questions requesting information on the names of the business and labour representatives on the board, the names of the alternate business and labour representatives, the effective date of their appointment or the date of their appointments.
Similar questions were sent yesterday to the NIB's corporate communications manager yesterday. Up to late yesterday, the NIB had not responded either.
On Tuesday, in an advertisement published in the Guardian, the NIB provided "important clarification" that it was only the terms of the business and labour members of the NIB board that expired on November 9.
The NIB's advertisement was in response to a Guardian article last Friday, which reported that the term of the NIB board had expired. The article was based on a statement from the NIB's spokesperson last week Wednesday.
T&T's National Insurance Act stipulates that the NIB shall have 11 directors, 10 of whom "shall be appointed" by the Minister of Finance.
Three NIB directors are nominated by associations most representative of business, three are nominated by associations most representative of labour and three are nominated directly by the Government. Those nine directors plus the chaiman of the NIB are all appointed by the Minister of Finance.
The eleventh NIB director is the financial institution's executive director, who sits on the board as an ex-officio member.”
The three Government-nominated directors on the NIB board are Marilyn Gordon, Muriel Alfred-James and Calvin Bijou.
T&T's National Insurance Act also states, at section 5 (4): “The chairman, or in his absence the deputy Chairman, and four other directors including at least one nominee each of government, business and labour shall form a quorum.”