Body formed to settle state workers grievances

State pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) said it is working closely with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to address members’ issues that were brought to the attention of the CSC and subsequently communicated with the pension fund for appropriate action.

The two agencies have formed a joint committee composed of key executives from the GSIS—headed by executive vice president for Operations Consuelo Manansala — and the CSC — headed by Assistant Commissioner Anicia de Lima — to thresh out concerns from different sectors of the government through a series of meetings. One of the issues discussed relates to members who will soon be retiring that have concerns on their unposted GSIS records. In response, the GSIS is reminding agencies to submit the names as well as the applications of employees who will avail of early retirement 60 days prior to their preferred retirement date to facilitate the reconciliation of the members’ accounts.

The pension fund added that the early notification mechanism will ensure the judicious settlement of their retirement benefits.

GSIS president Winston Garcia said the full compliance of all agencies concerned is crucial in ensuring the success of the program, especially in meeting the GSIS’ aforementioned objectives.

“The success of this activity would require the cooperation and full support of all agencies by providing us the names of their employees below 65 years old who intend to avail of early retirement,” he said.

Consequently, members who will avail of the early retirement are required to submit their application as endorsed by their respective heads of agencies.

Garcia added that the GSIS is prioritizing the reconciliation of premium and loan payments of prospective retirees to facilitate the timely and accurate computation of their benefits.

For further details on this program, the pension fund has advised the Authorized Agency Officers of different agencies to coordinate with the Membership Group of the GSIS.

Meanwhile, the GSIS said concerns on questionable loan accounts allegedly incurred by some members are referred to its Investigation Department. On the other hand, issues on the alleged inability of some members to avail of loans are referred to the GSIS’ Internal Reconciliation Unit for appropriate examination.

“If the CSC has any knowledge of such cases, we ask them to provide us the names so we can look into the matter,” Garcia said.

The GSIS’ problems with unposted payments stemmed from the deficiency in its database management system software dubbed as DB2 and supplied by IBM. Despite the problems with IBM-DB2, Garcia assured members that the GSIS continues to process loans and claims although the processing of such has experienced delays.

“The integrity of all membership data has not been compromised and no data has been lost, as records have been preserved and kept in perpetual storage,” he said. –Daily Tribune