Review and revamp the National Insurance Board

Since NIB's creation 40 years ago, the worlds of social security, finance and investments have undergone significant change. So too has corporate governance and NIB is no mom and pop shop. The NIB takes in more than $2 billion annually and has an asset base of about $20 billion. It is a significant shareholder in Trinidad Cement Limited, Republic Bank and the Home Mortgage Bank, cumulatively worth $3 billion. NIB is a big player in the local bond and equity markets and it must be insulated from political and corporate interlopers.

A modern NIB does not need a tripartite board in which the Ministry of Finance accepts whoever is nominated by unions and employers. The country has no guarantee that the nominees have the technical skills and personal attributes to guide and govern an entity of NIB's significance in the local economy. What the NIB needs is a board with the expertise to manage a major social security organisation and going forward employers and unions may still be asked to nominate persons with specific skills.

Secondly, NIB's social security benefits administration and its investment functions should be separated. Government should pursue a model in which it splits the social security and fund management functions of the NIB; it widens the scope of the NIB to cover administration of all social security and State benefits; it places the management and investment of the NIB's funds into the hands of an expert institution and it determines the future of NIB's subsidiaries and investments, having regard to the NIB's core business.

It means revisiting NIB's investment in and relationship with NIPDEC, its wholly-owned subsidiary.