By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE BOARD of directors at the National insurance Board yesterday reaffirmed their full support of chairman Gregory Moss, whom they assert only acted as a “chief spokesperson”.

In a bid to assure competency in the ongoing function of the board in light of recent allegations made against Mr Moss and director Algernon Cargill, board directors held a press conference at the National Insurance Board head office yesterday.

Deputy chairman Bernard Evans said: “Decisions made by the board of directors as part of its administrative oversight of NIB are that of the board and not the Chairman alone.
“The board continues to give the chairman its full support as he executes his leadership role and in support of the chairman will continue to function fully to ensure that NIB carries out its important social welfare function.”
Mr Evans added that the board took full responsibility for all corporate decisions.
The current board of directors was appointed in July and have been given an austere mandate.
Philip Beneby, chairman of the Audit Committee said: “In terms of policies and procedures, we are reviewing all [of them]. The committees are looking at all aspects of them. Firstly in our fiduciary obligation to ensure that the fund of the board is protected, and secondly we want to be an efficient and effective board as much as possible.
He added: “Most government agencies will have some ‘fat’ for lack of a better word and where there is fat or significant overages we’d like to tighten those up because at the end of the day we have a duty to ensure we operate as effective as we can.”
Total NIB assets currently value $1.6 billion, according to Mr Evans, who said that this figure was fully accounted for. The board held an all day meeting on Saturday.
Mr Evans said: “Under the leadership of Chairman Moss, [the board] approved NIB’s budget for 2013, reviewed the board’s portfolio of investments, took receipt of and commenced review of a five year actuarial report on the National Insurance Fund and approved cases for prosecution against persons and companies who have failed to keep their contributions current amongst many other important issues.”