By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement (FNM) leader Michael Pintard said National Insurance Board Minister Alfred Sears should resign or be fired if he misled Parliament about increases in NIB contribution rates.

Mr Sears announced last week that rates would increase by 1.5 per cent on July 1.

Although he initially said contribution rates would increase by 1.5 per cent every two years for the next 20 years, the Office of the Prime Minister later reversed this commitment.

Mr Pintard said yesterday: “According to press reports, the Prime Minister indicated that the government never approved the 20-year plan of rate increases by NIB that the minister for NIB, Alfred Sears, claimed was the government’s policy to commence July 2024. So, by that admission, the prime minister is stating that Minister Sears misled the Bahamian people with his statement on the House floor.

“If this is so, then Minister Sears must tender his resignation or be fired.”

Mr Pintard also noted Mr Sears’ silence on the situation, saying: “Perhaps Davis' failure to act may actually mean that the prime minister himself is misleading the public when he claims that he and his Cabinet did not authorise the 20 years of NIB increases.”

Mr Pintard said the government’s failure to call for his resignation shows they “have no understanding of or respect for the basic principles and conventions of our system of government”.

Former NIB Minister Brensil Rolle said yesterday that Mr Sears likely got approval from Cabinet to announce the 20 years of increases.

“It is inconceivable that a minister would go and say we’re going to tax the Bahamian people for 20 years without getting clearance," he said.

"So that gives me the impression that the prime minister is not telling the truth and therefore, that’s why Alfred Sears has not been asked to resign.”

Former State Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Myles Laroda revealed last year that government agencies owed NIB $8m.

Mr Rolle believes the government should have paid NIB what it was owed before announcing increases to the contribution rate.

“I think the reasonable thing to is to make an attempt to collect the outstanding fees owed to the board,” he said. “That’s the first thing. You can’t have individuals and companies owing NIB millions of dollars and not paying and not even attempting to collect that and saying we going to increase.”

“Our position was the government must set its example by ensuring that any monies owed to NIB was paid and we tried to collect those monies at the end of the budget year."

“Desmond Bannister was the minister that made sure the ministry or the department that owed NIB funds were paid to the government directly. We reached out to other agencies and they were beginning to pay. We’ve reached out to some companies and threatened them and promised to take them to court. Some of them paid but a substantial amount of them still did not pay.”