COA: City Hall failed to remit P17.53-M GSIS contributions

By: Gerome Dalipe

SOME officials and employees of the Iloilo City Hall may have a hard time availing themselves of the loan services with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

This, after the City Government, failed to remit the contributions of its personnel due to the state-run pension fund at the end of fiscal year 2018 amounting to P17.53 million.

In its 2018 annual audit report, the Commission on Audit (COA) said the employees’ GSIS contributions were not remitted due to erroneous posting in the subsidiary ledgers that resulted in over or under remittances.

Likewise, the unreconciled balances amounting to over P1 million violated the provision of Republic Act 8291, or the GSIS Act of 1997.

Such unreconciled balances “might affect the reliability of the account balance and the personnel’s claims upon retirement,” the auditors noted.

The state auditors recommended to the city accountant to thoroughly review deductions from personnel and ensure that all premiums or loan payments are fully remitted to the GSIS within the prescribed period.

The city accountant should also review the entries in the subsidiary ledgers with negative balances or unreconciled amounts and make the necessary adjusting entries to correct the balances of affected accounts.

Likewise, the auditors said the city accountant should analyze thoroughly the journal entries made before posting the same in the subsidiary ledgers to ensure accurate recording of transactions and reliable balances of accounts.

Apart from unremitted GSIS contributions, the City Hall also incurred wrong posting in the subsidiary ledgers, which resulted in either over or under remittances of Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) premiums amounting to about P2 million.

Likewise, the HDMF’s unreconciled balances at the end of the fiscal year 2018 reached P184,341.25,

And such acts by the City Hall violated the HDMF Circular 275, which might affect the reliability of the account balance and the personnel’s claims upon retirement.

The state auditors urged the city accountant to review the deductions of personnel and ensure that all premiums and loan payments are fully remitted to the HDMF within the prescribed period.