THE Commission on Audit (COA) has revealed that 926,899 delinquent employers owe P321.532 billion to the Social Security System (SSS) in unremitted premium contributions, including penalties and damages, as of December 31, 2020.
Government auditors said this was despite the implementation of the Condonation Penalty Contribution Program and the Accounts Management System (AMS) in 2019.
The AMS enabled employers and SSS members online access to their account status, facilitated monitoring by account officers, and provided SSS legal enforcement officers updates on delinquent accounts referred to them.
Auditors said the unpaid assessment negatively impacts on the capability of the SSS to deliver social security protection, claims, and benefits for its members and beneficiaries.
Based on a breakdown provided in the audit report, 916,229 delinquent employers are under the Branch Operations Sector (BOS) which accounted for P315.232 billion.
Another 10,151 erring employers are under the Legal Enforcement Group (LEG) involving P4.836 billion in unpaid contributions.
The Large Account Division (LAD) has P1.118 billion and the SSS Commission Secretariat has P345.156 million.
“In terms of amount, total CY 2020 reported delinquencies of P316.351 billion is higher by 70 per cent than that reported in CY 2019 of P186.201 billion,” the COA said.
During the past year, the SSS reported that total settlement of delinquent accounts reached P593.21 million.
Aging of the delinquencies showed 676,748 have not settled their obligations for more than five years, 85,348 are aged three to four years, and 94,583 have been outstanding for one to two years.
The audit team recommended that the SSS implement stricter guidelines to address the growing number of delinquent employers.
Likewise, it urged the state pension agency to consider implementing another condonation program for employers and members who failed to avail of the opportunity earlier.
The SSS said consolidation of the total number of delinquent employers may have been a mistake noting that the numbers in LEG were referrals originating from BOS and LAD, hence the possibility of double counting.
Likewise, it clarified that salary loans and calamity loan amortization repayments should not have been included in the count since they are not contribution-based loans.
