NIS files court action against former KFC franchise holder

…alleges failure to pay $15.6M in contributions

February 27, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under News, Source - Kaieteur News

The Board of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) has filed court action against the Friendship Hotel and Restaurant Holdings Limited, owned by popular businessman Deonarine Singh, allegedly for its failure to pay $15.6M in contributions on behalf of a number of employees. The entity formerly operated outlets under the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Pizza Hut Franchises.

The National Insurance Board, whose registered office is situated at Brickdam and Winter Place, Georgetown, will be taking the company before the courts on ten counts of failure to pay contributions at or within the time prescribed. The money is reportedly owed for a total of ten months in 2013 and 2014.

The court action, filed in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, names Singh, the company’s Director; Shareholder, Bibi Naseeb Khan and Company Secretary, Solange Pertab, as defendants in the matter.

The court document specifies that the charges were in keeping with Section 41 (1) of the National Insurance and Social Security Act, Chapter 36:01 of the local laws.

The insurance company is claiming that the Friendship Hotel and Restaurant Holdings Limited, with registered office situated at Lot 118 ‘S’ Cowan Street, Kingston, Georgetown, failed to pay contributions for and on behalf of several employees for the first six months of 2013 (January – June) and several months last year.

The National Insurance Board is claiming the business entity owed $9,742,398 for 2013, while it reportedly failed to make good in contributions totaling $5,830,924 for the months of February, May, June and July, last year.

The court documents specify that for January 2013 the business entity owed $1,935,795; in February $1,626,949; March $1,427,118; April $1,565,953; May $1,705,690 and $1,480,893 in June that year. This amounted to $9,742,398.

The board, in the documents, claimed that it was owed $1,484,912 for February 2014, $1,426,401 for May; $1,349,729 for June; and $1,569,882 for July of the same year. The sums for last year amounted to $5,830,924.

According to the documents, Friendship Hotel and Restaurant Holdings Limited failed to fork up $15,573,322 in employees’ contributions.

The charges laid specify that the business entity had until the fifteen day of the month which followed to clear its accounts with the insurance scheme, but it had failed to do so on the aforementioned occasions.

The insurance board requested that the defendants be summoned to answer the charges and the matter should be called up before a Magistrate at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

This comes at a time when the National Insurance Scheme has garnered public interest for its modus operandi. News surfaced last month that the state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation GuySuCo owes over $1.5B to the NIS in contributions.

Meanwhile, it was last November that the NIS came under scrutiny when it was revealed that thousands of contributors owed millions of dollars by the Scheme cannot be identified.