( L - R ) Davies, Viralee Latibeaudiere

THE ISSUE of whether the non-registration of Government with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) for insurance purposes meant that the Government was flagrantly breaching its own rules was raised during a parliamentary committee meeting.

Insurance companies are required by law to be registered with the FSC. However, although there are instances where Government vehicles are self-insured, the requirement of registration with the regulatory body has apparently been flouted.

Acting Director General of Tax Administration, Viralee Latibeaudiere, told Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday that the Government should be registered with the regulatory body for insurance purposes.

"Are you required to formally register with the FSC such that somebody knows that if he or she is in an accident with a government vehicle which is self-insured that they are covered?" asked Dr Omar Davies, the committee's chairman.

Responding, Latibeaudiere said: "I think they should be registered, they are not but they should be."

Officials from the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) were under the microscope of the PAC.

Committee members on Wednesday also queried a list of unregistered insurance companies, which appeared on the automated motor vehicle system of the IRD.

The list included the names of a patio company and a dry cleaning firm, which were first believed to be providing insurance services.

"How would a patio shop be an insurance company or a dry cleaning place?" the committee chairman inquired.

Nicole Allen, acting information technology manager at the IRD, moved swiftly to assure committee members that a system error had led to the transfer of data to separate tables on its system.

Database integrity

"We will not delete data from this table but relocate them because we cannot delete them. It would ruin the integrity of the database," Allen told the PAC.

However, she said the unregistered companies would be placed in a group called IRD PAC.

At present there are 12 firms that are registered with the FSC as insurance companies.