Some government agencies have been deducting contributions to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) from their employees’ salaries but failing to remit the money to the state pension fund, a problem that in some cases stretches back three decades, GSIS President and CEO Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso disclosed Saturday, April 25.
Veloso made the revelation during an interview on DZRH News program Special on Saturday, saying the issue surfaces regularly enough that GSIS has built a formal recognition program around efforts to recover long-overdue remittances from delinquent agencies.
He said some of the recovered remittances date as far back as 1995, with branch officers having to track down decades-old records and confront agency officials who were not yet in their positions when the original deductions were made.
“Hanggang ngayon, nag-a-award po ako tuwing flag raising ceremony namin tuwing Lunes,” Veloso said, referring to citations given to GSIS branches that successfully collect from agencies with outstanding remittance obligations.
Veloso acknowledged the awkward position this places on current agency heads, noting that officials cannot simply disown obligations incurred by their predecessors. “Hindi ko naman ‘to inutang, ako magbabayad nito?” he said, describing the reaction of newly elected officials confronted with old remittance deficiencies.
He said the failure to remit also has direct consequences for affected employees, who may find their GSIS records showing arrears despite having had contributions deducted from their pay — a situation Veloso said is the agency’s fault, not the member’s.
Veloso was firm on GSIS’s position: the fund can only recognize what has actually been remitted. “Iisa lang ho ang basehan ng GSIS: kung magkano ni-remit,” he said, adding that the agency maintains records of all remittances received as the sole basis for a member’s standing.
