Hinds NIB loans were "written off"?

Senator: NIB to lose $197M
SEAN DOUGLAS Saturday, March 20 2004


The National Insurance Board (NIB) is set to write-off some $197 million in allegedly irrecoverable losses, warned an Independent Senator. Parvatee Anmolsingh-Mahabir made this disclosure in a statement given to Newsday yesterday. She said this move would dwarf the already known write-off of $47 million in losses announced by NIB’s property arm, Nipdec. The issue of NIB loan write-offs arose recently with Opposition claims that the NIB wrote-off some $270,000 owed by Laventille East/Morvant MP, Fitzgerald Hinds, a charge he has denied. In her statement yesterday, Anmolsingh-Mahabir said: “In an in-depth analysis of the last NIB annual report of 2002, the balance sheet on page 43 of this document shows an existing provision of $197,211,000 which has been allocated or set aside as “possible” credit risk and financial loss to NIB.”

She slammed this situation as “mind-boggling,” saying she had to sound the alarm bells now before the horse bolted. Anmolsingh-Mahabir hit: “The NIB figure of $197,211,000 related to millions of dollars which have been invested by NIB from the long-term benefit fund out of which the retirees are paid their monthly allowances.” The public, she said, stood to collectively lose some $197 million in NIB benefits plus the interest it should have earned. She said people were very suspicious about NIB’s management of contributors’ funds. Anmolsingh-Mahabir accused the NIB of disobeying the law. The NIB must explain to the public why it had not followed the National Insurance Act’s procedure for disbursing loans.

Moreso, the NIB had broken the Act (1971), she said, by so far not laying in Parliament its annual report for 2003. Quoting the Act, she said NIB officials were to be held legally accountable as individuals for their actions. To ensure transparency and accountability, she said, there must be an independent forensic audit of the write-off of the $47 million and of any other multi-million dollar write-offs done since 1972. The NIB had assets of $12 billion, she noted. “In light of recent NIB revelations, I renew my call for a public inquiry into the operations of the NIB.” Anmolsingh-Mahabir disclosed she had filed several questions to ministers on the order paper of the Senate over the NIB.

She said: “I cannot understand why the NIB, through the Minister of Finance, is taking so long to respond.” “Public contributors need a full explanation how this write-off came about and what steps are being taken to prevent its recurrence.” In her Senate question, Anmolsingh-Mahabir has asked for the names of all persons who have benefitted from NIB debt forgiveness, the amount written-off in each case, and the security offered for the loan in each case. A reply had been due to her since March 2.

http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/print,0,16374.html