The Commission on Audit has urged the Social Security System (SSS) to speed up validation of negative balances totaling P572.15 million as of December 31, 2021 representing receivables from collecting banks (CBs) and collecting agencies (CAs) that are supposed to be remitted to the pension fund.
Government auditors said private banks and collection agents accredited as SSS partners have failed to submit collection documents or submitted “incorrect/invalid collection data files” resulting in negative balances in the receivable accounts.
Because these collections come from employers’ and SSS members’ contributions and payments of various loans, the members accounts are adversely affected as the sums are not promptly reflected on their accounts.
“The negative or credit balances, which mostly pertain to prior year’s collections/remittances, are attributed to the delayed posting of premium contributions and loan payments …due to lack of correct/valid collection documents to support the remittances by the Collection Partners,” the COA said.
Based on the audit report, the Epay Online had the biggest negative/credit balance of P338.56 million followed by CB-Regular with P112.8 million. Epay Online handles collections from employers while CB-Regular is represented by 85 collecting banks accredited by the SSS.
The COA noted that the implementation of Real-time Processing of Contributions (RTPC) and Real-time Processing of Loans (RTPL) in 2020 have addressed the problem of delayed posting of contributions and loan payments but collections from prior years remain an issue mostly due to improper documentation.
However, the commission warned that the SSS could losing income opportunities until the negative receivable balances are sorted out.
“Most importantly, if the long outstanding receivables are indeed collections that CBs/CAs have not yet remitted to SSS, this means lost opportunity to invest funds to earn income for the benefit of the members and their beneficiaries,” the audit team pointed out.
Moreover, a comparison of amounts due for remittance of eight collecting partners based on SSS books and the Consolidated Statement of Analysis of Remittance of Collection (CSARC) prepared by the SSS Collection Data Processing and Reconciliation Department (CDPRD) showed a P1.351 billion variance.
Per SSS books the due for remittance amounted to P1.353 billion but according to the CSARC figures the amount was only P1.527 million.
According to the breakdown provided in the audit report, the biggest variance was listed with Union Bank’s account totaling P1.329 billion. The SSS books showed P1.331 billion while the CSARC balance only showed P1.527 million.
