NIB promises Imbert report on PSA agreement

THE National Insurance Board of TT (NIB) on Thursday promised to provide Finance Minister Colm Imbert with a detailed report about a collective agreement between it and the Public Services Association (PSA), which Imbert referred to in the Senate on Tuesday.

While it made this commitment, the NIB made no comment on any of the matters raised by Imbert in the Senate or subsequent comments made by his predecessor Winston Dookeran, PSA president Watson Duke or UNC MP Rudranath Indarsingh on the matter.

In a brief statement, the company said, "The NIB is committed to providing a comprehensive report to the Ministry of Finance to clarify any issues surrounding the collective agreement for the period January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016."

On Tuesday, Imbert said, "I can say off the bat, if that agreement, the wage increase that was contemplated by that agreement, was implemented in the public sector, it would cost $7 billion." He explained, "This is why I am seeking advice at this point in time and that is all I can say at this point in time."

Imbert said, "The investigations of the Ministry of Finance so far, have indicated, as far as we have been told, that the management of the NIB did not inform the board of the ministerial directive of March 25, 2011." He added that an investigation is ongoing and the NIB will provide him with a report in due course.

In a subsequent statement issued by the ministry, Imbert rejected claims from Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh that he said the agreement was signed under the former UNC-led People's Partnership government.

He said an instruction was sent to the NIB on March 25, 2011 by the then finance minister, regarding the role of a ministerial committee set up to monitor the conduct of wage and salary negotiations and to issue guidelines for collective agreements, "which is an indisputable fact."

Imbert also indicated he never said that the collective agreement between the NIB and the PSA for the 2014-2016 period was signed under the PP "or anything even remotely close to that." Imbert said in his reply to Opposition Senator Wade Mark on the matter, he had said it was "a recently concluded agreement."

Dookeran, finance minister between May 28, 2010 to June, 2012, on Wednesday said, "As minister of finance then, I was acutely aware of the need to have a national wage policy that will not put at risk the fiscal space and competitiveness of the economy." He did not comment on the agreement.

But he said, "Several attempts to subvert that were made, at the peril of prudent fiscal management. We are facing the consequences...then and with recent developments more so now." Dookeran said the lesson to be learnt is "adopting a prudent national strategy for wage determination, that does not put the fiscal situation at greater risk as the economy is on the edge."

Former minister in the ministry of finance Vasant Bharath (from June 25, 2012 to 17 June, 2015) said he was not aware or familiar with the agreement. PSA president Watson Duke on Tuesday said the PSA met with the NIB and agreed in October 2020 that the collective agreement was valid.