GSIS finds 30,000 bogus pension records
GSIS has unearthed 30,000 false survivorship pensioner records following the improvement in its moitoing system and database cleansing.
GSIS PGM Winston F. Garcia said the discovery of such a huge number of spurious pension benefit claimants is the main reason why the GSIS has decided to cleanse its records, however unpopular it may be especially to survivorship pensioners.
“We are more concerned in doing what is right, rather than what is popular. This discovery is the principal reason why we hae undertaken this database cleansing,” he explained. “This is why we strengthened our monitoring system and improved the manner by which we deliver pension benefits to pensioners.”
By removing this fake records, the GSIS was able to prevent potential losses of around P864 million annually due to false survivorship claims.
The GSIS implemented a massive cleansing of its database last February 1 after the agency discovered discrepancies in its records of survivorship pensioners.
The pension fund said the cleansing was completed last March 21 and has now started mailing the February, March, and April 2007 checks of survivorship pensioners.
In December 2005, the GSIS issued the eCard to its old-age pensioners in preparation for the electronic crediting of monthly pensions beginning January of this year. Alongside with this enrollment to the eCard is the strengthening of the system for monitoring and renewal of the pensioners’ active status through fingerprint validation.
This biometric validation will capture unreported deaths of pensioners which had defrauded the pension fund of millions of pesos in previous years.
In like manner, survivorship pensioners are now being enrolled to the eCard program so that the new monitoring system and eCrediting of pensions can be applied to them as well.
Mr. Garcia said, “The presence of so many illegitimate pensioners is a reality we all must have a grip on. We conducted dialogues with pensioners to explain this to them.”
The GSIS chief also pointed out that the cleansing will ensure that the GSIS will only pay those who are entitled to be paid their pension benefits.
The database cleansing was the latest of a series of reforms the GSIS has implemented. In the past few years, the GSIS has been engaging in various initiatives to update the members’ records and address any mismatch in its database to ensure that its funds remain sufficient and the actuarial life is prolonged further.
The actuarial life refers to the number of years within which the GSIS can fully service all the claims and benefits of its members and pensioners. Beyon this, the pension fund shall be depleted and will no longer be in a position to sustain benefit payments.
Previously, the GSIS had a very liberal interpretation of the amount of retirement benefits pensioners would get. The pension fund had an assumption of premium payments, or it assumed that other government agencies regularly and correctly remit the premium contributions of their employees to the GSIS.
Because of this assumption, the GSIS found out that from the 1990s to 2002, there were a number of arrearages incurred by a number of agencies that have not been regularly remitting the premium payments of members.
This resulted in the reduction of its actuarial life. Following an actuarial study, it was revealed that the GSIS had only 32 years in actuarial life in 2002 from 65 years in 1997.
Since it began implementing various reforms and other cost-management strategies, the GSIS said it has now extended its actuarial life to 2040.
The GSIS plans to increase this further to 2100.
Source: GSIS Kawani, Vol. 1 No. 1, January - April 2007.