National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson said the government has made a selection for the new National Insurance Board (NIB) director, but he said negotiations with the individual have not begun as yet.

Reliable sources have confirmed that NIB board of directors have selected Rowena Bethel – a former board member of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company and legal counsel within the Ministry of Finance.

But Mr. Gibson would not confirm this.

“It would be premature to say who we would like because we have not started the process yet and at the end of the day the offer that we have put on the table may not be accepted and so I would like to see if we can get an agreement in principle with the individual and once we have that agreement in principle we can introduce that information to the public,” he told reporters on his way to the weekly Cabinet meeting.

“We have to do it before we have initial discussions because we have only identified the person. We have not sat down yet and had discussions with the person and so as soon as we have started the process at least then we will be in a better position to say who it is.”

Minister Gibson said the government still plans to review executives’ pay scales as he feels many of them are too high.

“We will have a conversation with all executives in government corporations and then we will work out a formula as to how we can go about having it in line with how we would like to see it,” he said.

“Unfortunately you can’t unilaterally change terms and conditions of employment but once you are hired under certain terms and conditions you can make a change by agreement of both parties and so once we have a complete review of it then we will make a decision I guess collectively as to where we go from here.”