GSIS, SSS have biggest undistributed collections – COA

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit has tagged the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Social Security System (SSS) as having the biggest undistributed collections (UC) among government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs).

COA tagged the GSIS for its delay in posting members’ contributions and loan payments totaling P11.51 billion in 2016. The SSS, meanwhile, had undistributed collections of around P1.135 billion recorded under “Other Current Liability – Members Loans (OCL-ML).”

The information is listed in COA’s 2016 Annual Financial Report on GOCCs, released on October 26.

GSIS undistributed collections

State auditors explained that in the case of the GSIS, “collections of premiums and loans have not been posted to the individual member’s accounts, thereby affecting the accuracy and correctness of presentation of members/pensioners’ data.”

The GSIS recorded the information under “accounts for clearing (AC).”

The COA explained that not posting member contributions will negatively impact the standing of a retiring government personnel based on the number of his monthly compulsory premiums, leading to lower benefits than what he is supposed to receive.

COA added the GSIS also had no policy or procedures in place to reconcile accounts for clearing in a timely manner.

SSS in second spot

COA said there were a number of reasons behind the large OCL-ML. Some of them included employers without a collections list, the invalid entries of employees, and employers with unbalanced transactions.

While there was sufficient data to help find the employers or companies with the problematic contributions and loan payments, there was no effort done to remedy the issue.

Auditors also saw unbalanced transactions that were over 10 years old, dating as far back as February 21, 2007.

COA explained: “Inasmuch that the SSS have identified the (employers) and their SBR (special bank receipt) numbers and dates, these ERs (employers) should have been immediately informed. These ERs and member-borrowers may have not known that their payments were not recorded or deducted from their loans.”

COA also said the SSS’s failure to credit the amounts meant the balance of its “receivables-members’ loans” was overstated. Also, computed interest and penalty incomes became understated.

Other GOCCs in COA’s list with uncredited collections are the following:

• Home Development Mutual Fund (PagIBIG Fund) – P604.154 million
• Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC) – P440.339 million
• National Home Mortgage and Finance Corp. (NHMFC) – P118.471 million
• Armed Forces of the Philippines-Retirement and Separation Benefits System (AFP-RSBS) – P5.665 million

– Rappler.com