Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, Colm Im­bert, says the board of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board (NIB) is prop­er­ly con­sti­tut­ed, as all of the gov­ern­ment, busi­ness and labour rep­re­sen­ta­tives on the board have been ap­point­ed.

In a two-para­graph news re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day morn­ing, Im­bert re­spond­ed to a col­umn in the Busi­ness Guardian, which was head­lined 'Is the NIB board prop­er­ly con­sti­tut­ed?'

In his news re­lease, Im­bert said: "The Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, Ho­n­ourable Colm Im­bert, MP, has tak­en note of an ar­ti­cle in to­day’s Busi­ness Guardian which in­sin­u­ates that the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board (NIB) is not prop­er­ly con­sti­tut­ed.

"Con­trary to the im­pres­sion giv­en in that ar­ti­cle, the NIB is prop­er­ly con­sti­tut­ed and all gov­ern­ment, busi­ness and labour rep­re­sen­ta­tives on the board have been ap­point­ed."

Yes­ter­day's re­lease from the Min­istry of Fi­nance did not name the gov­ern­ment, busi­ness and labour rep­re­sen­ta­tives on the NIB board.

The Min­istry of Fi­nance's cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions de­part­ment did not im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond to ques­tions re­quest­ing in­for­ma­tion on the names of the busi­ness and labour rep­re­sen­ta­tives on the board, the names of the al­ter­nate busi­ness and labour rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the ef­fec­tive date of their ap­point­ment or the date of their ap­point­ments.

Sim­i­lar ques­tions were sent yes­ter­day to the NIB's cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er yes­ter­day. Up to late yes­ter­day, the NIB had not re­spond­ed ei­ther.

On Tues­day, in an ad­ver­tise­ment pub­lished in the Guardian, the NIB pro­vid­ed "im­por­tant clar­i­fi­ca­tion" that it was on­ly the terms of the busi­ness and labour mem­bers of the NIB board that ex­pired on No­vem­ber 9.

The NIB's ad­ver­tise­ment was in re­sponse to a Guardian ar­ti­cle last Fri­day, which re­port­ed that the term of the NIB board had ex­pired. The ar­ti­cle was based on a state­ment from the NIB's spokesper­son last week Wednes­day.

T&T's Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Act stip­u­lates that the NIB shall have 11 di­rec­tors, 10 of whom "shall be ap­point­ed" by the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance.

Three NIB di­rec­tors are nom­i­nat­ed by as­so­ci­a­tions most rep­re­sen­ta­tive of busi­ness, three are nom­i­nat­ed by as­so­ci­a­tions most rep­re­sen­ta­tive of labour and three are nom­i­nat­ed di­rect­ly by the Gov­ern­ment. Those nine di­rec­tors plus the chaiman of the NIB are all ap­point­ed by the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance.

The eleventh NIB di­rec­tor is the fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion's ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor, who sits on the board as an ex-of­fi­cio mem­ber.”

The three Gov­ern­ment-nom­i­nat­ed di­rec­tors on the NIB board are Mar­i­lyn Gor­don, Muriel Al­fred-James and Calvin Bi­jou.

T&T's Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Act al­so states, at sec­tion 5 (4): “The chair­man, or in his ab­sence the deputy Chair­man, and four oth­er di­rec­tors in­clud­ing at least one nom­i­nee each of gov­ern­ment, busi­ness and labour shall form a quo­rum.”