COA: P12.6B not credited to GSIS, SSS members in 2016

The Commission on Audit has called out the Government Service Insurance System and the Social Security System for the delay in crediting P12.645 billion to the accounts of members who paid contributions and loan amortizations as of 2016.

In its annual financial report on government-owned and controlled corporations for 2016, COA said GSIS and SSS each had P11.51 billion and P1.135 billion in “undistributed collections.”

Although there was no elaboration in the COA reports, the 2016 figure of the sSS notably improved from the P9.939-billion undistributed collections stated in the 2015 annual financial report.

However, the latest figure of the GSIS was more than quadruple the P2.697 billion in undistributed collections reported by COA for 2015.

Undistributed collections refer to state insurance premiums or loans which were paid by the members, pensioners or borrowers but not posted right away to their individual accounts.

The failure to credit the amounts to the state pension funds’ members “affected the accuracy of individual data recorded” in the subsidiary ledgers of the said government entities.

COA had consistently warned even in previous financial reports that the delayed posting of collections could lead to inaccurate balances and erroneous payment of claims.

The two state pension funds – which respectively cover government and private-sector employees – topped three housing agencies and the military pension system in the COA list of entities with undistributed collections.

The Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), popularly known as the Pag-IBIG Fund, had P604.15 million in undistributed collections. This was followed by the Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC) with P440.34 million and the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. with P118.47 million.

Lastly, the Armed Forces of the Philippines Retirement and Separation Benefits System (AFP-RSBS) had P5.67 million in undistributed collections.

The undistributed collections of HDMF and SHFC increased from P37.66 million and P372.62 million in the previous year, while the figure for AFP-RSBS decreased from P4.91 billion.

All in all, the total for the six listed entities – GSIS, SSS, HDMF, SHFC, NHMFC and AFP-RSBS – was P13.81 billion, less than P17.96-billion total reported by COA for 2015.

State auditors called on the agencies post the undistributed collections to the specific accounts of each member, pensioner or borrower, and recommended that a continuous cleanup of such uncredited amounts be made to “minimize its accumulation.” /atm