IN 2015, the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF or Pag-IBIG) paid P322,040,114.91 as incentives to all personnel who would avail of early retirement.
But in a 19-page decision released this week, the Commission on Audit (COA) said those who received the incentives and Pag-IBIG officials who approved the benefits must repay the government for the entire sum.
The COA en banc said Pag-IBIG Fund’s Early Retirement Incentive Plan (ERIP) was a cash reward or a double retirement pay since all personnel were still allowed to collect sums from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
According to data obtained by the team of auditors, 162 officials of the agency collected the ERIP together with hundreds of employees.
The same data showed P165.54 million was paid in 2010 and 2011 and P156.5 million from 2011 to 2013 or a total of P322.041 million.
Said payouts were made possible after the Board of Trustees issued Resolution No. 2780 s. 2010 dated March 11, 2010, which gave Pag-IBIG personnel the option to retire and collect the cash incentive from ERIP “without prejudice to the retiree’s entitlement to the regular retirement benefits under any of the existing GSIS retirement laws.”
The COA Corporate Government Sector – Cluster 2 director upheld the notice of disallowance, prompting Pag-IBIG Chief Executive Officer and other agency officials to file petitions for review on June 20 and July 15, 2016.
The petitioners argued that the Board of Trustees’ actions in approving the ERIP enjoys the presumption of regularity and should be allowed since the agency personnel received the cash incentives in good faith. They likewise stressed that the funds for the ERIP all came from Pag-IBIG without a cent drawn from the GSIS.
The COA en banc was unimpressed.
“This Commission finds the payment of ERIP benefits to HDMF officers and personnel not valid, hence there is no cogent reason to overturn the COA-CGS Cluster 2 decision,” it said.
Records likewise showed that 60 of the 162 HDMF officers who received ERIP payments also availed of retirement benefits under the GSIS, which auditors tagged as a violation of COA Circular No. 2012-003 for constituting supplementary or double payment of retirement benefits.
“The obligation to refund the disallowed ERIP falls upon both those directly responsible for authorizing. approving/certifying officers and HDMF employees to actually received the benefits,” the COA said.
