Prime Minister Perry Christie Monday confirmed the appointment of Attorney Rowena Bethell as the new Director of the National Insurance Board (NIB) and he said the new appointment is the first step to returning the organisation to an efficient and transparent state.
The Bahama Journal reported exclusively two weeks ago that Ms. Bethel had been tapped for the position.
She replaces now fired NIB Director Algernon Cargill whose employment was terminated amid findings of misconduct.
Mr. Christie said the appointment represents a new day at NIB.
“The new director will take command of with the Board of what they are doing right now,” he said.
“I think it is always important for the Board to have a complete audit and when you have a new Board that came in with us
I’m sure that new Board would want to have a defining audit report saying this is what we met so that they are not burdened by decisions made by the prior Board. So everything that is happening is to be expected.”
The prime minister noted that accountability and transparency must be the orders of the day at that agency.
Mr. Christie said he has instructed National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson to call for a complete actuary assessment to be carried out.
But what’s most important the prime minister said is ensuring the NIB fund is there for future generations.
“The strategies that we’ve been using like using the NIB funds to assist with capital development projects where they are leased and the government will pay off on a recurring basis to build clinics or mini hospitals. We’ve been using the fund for those purposes and the question is, to the extent that we are doing so, is this consistent with best practices for our social security funds and I think this is a good time for the government to commission such an actuarial assessment so that we know and so we could do what is the ultimate responsibility – protecting the fund for future generations of Bahamians.”
Mr. Christie said the government is looking at having a team from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conduct a complete examination of NIB.
Earlier this year, the government paid auditors from Grant Thornton more than $900,000 to conduct a forensic audit into NIB’s affairs.
Meanwhile, Ms. Bethel is expected to assume her new role sometime this week.