fp Turks and Caicos

Consultative Forum Chairwoman Lillian Misick has been appointed to chair the National Insurance Board, acting Gov. Patrick Boyle announced March 30.
Misick will replace Ervine Quelch, whose five-year term ended March 31.

The change comes while the NIB is at odds with the interim administration over His Excellency the Gov. Ric Todd’s decision to transfer $10 million from the NIB to the financially ailing National Health Insurance Program (NHIP). The NIB is suing the government to stop the transfer of funds.

“I know that the NIB has some challenges to resolve, some of which have become controversial in recent months,” Misick said in a written statement. “I want to work hard to bring these to a sensible conclusion quickly for the good of all the NIB’s contributors and beneficiaries, as well as taxpayers and the people of the TCI. Above all, I want to help the NIB to fulfil its potential as an exemplary public body in the Turks and Caicos Islands and in the region.”

The dispute centers on reimbursements NIB is supposed to make for health care treatment of insured people for work related injuries, disabilities and deaths. Since 1992, former elected governments never submitted claims, causing the NIB to build up a $20 million surplus in that fund.

Despite the lack of documented requests, the NIB paid government $50,000 a year. When the interim government submitted its first documented request in 2009 for $837,000, the NIB says government agreed that payment would satisfy NIB’s total indebtedness to government dating back to 1992.

Todd disputed that claim and passed a special law to make a one-time transfer to the NHIP for an amount estimated by the NIB’s actuary to be what should have been paid for health care over 20 years, an amount the government has had to pay. The money does not come from funds collected for retirees’ pensions.

Quelch has called the $10 million transfer “a rape of the National Insurance Fund,” but that the NIB would pay if ordered by the court.

Misick’s appointment is for five years, and she will continue to server as forum chairwoman, Boyle said.

“Ms. Misick is a well respected figure in the Turks and Caicos Islands and has repeatedly demonstrated her commitment to the islands, in particular through her work on the Consultative Forum which she will continue to chair,” Boyle said. “I have no doubt that Ms. Misick’s considerable strength, energy and enthusiasm will make her an effective chair of the NIB.”

Misick had been working for Turks and Caicos Islands Investment Agency, known as TCInvest, until the governor announced in January that he was dissolving the agency because of its failing loan portfolio and other problems.

TCInvest was formed in 1995 to help local entrepreneurs and encourage foreign investment in the islands. The interim government had been trying to make the agency a one-stop shop for business, but Todd decided that effort had failed.

Some of the 20 members of the TCInvest staff will be transferred into a new inward investment team in the CEO’s office, while business licensing and small business support will be taken over by the Finance Ministry. Some employees “may well be offered or find positions elsewhere in government or chose to leave the public sector,” the government said in its announcement of the decision.

On the day of the decision, Misick fired off an open letter to the governor criticizing the way in which he made his decision but did not question his authority to do so.

“Alas, that you were adamant to the point of appearing defiant this morning about your decision to abolish TCInvest, despite the earnest pleadings of members for just a chance to be heard, made it clear to all present that my appeals to you have been in vain,” Misick said in her letter.

“I hope you appreciate how much credence this gives to those who dismissed the forum from the outset as nothing more than a rubber stamp for the neo-colonial machinations of British interlopers.”

On March 29, Misick said she was delighted with her new appointment.

“I am looking forward to meeting the board and staff, and to working with them in the interests of the NIB and the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands,” she said.

Photo: Lillian Misick