It’s now the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA)’s turn for a probe as the Commission on Audit has found serious deficiencies in the handling of its employee payroll.
Based on CoA’s annual audit report, state auditors noted that the wage inaccuracies led to issues and delay when it came to the payment of mandatory contributions for MMDA’s staff.
In a particular finding, CoA cited that the development agency had an unremitted balance of ₱57.23 million from withheld Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) contributions and loan amortizations.
The Commission singled out delays in the MMDA’s recoupment of ₱40 million in cash, which was reportedly accumulated from differences in the payroll records of the Authority to the GSIS posting records.
The errors, it detailed, came in the form of “unmatched employee contributions, incomplete or inconsistent premium details and variances in recorded loan balances.”
It was likewise mentioned that some discrepancies had been raised in prior years but have remained unvalidated and unadjusted.
“These conditions require further verification with GSIS before remittances could be fully confirmed and posted,” the audit report pointed out.
Furthermore, the issues with GSIS also had an impact on the benefits that the employees would have in terms of their insurance, loan privileges and retirement benefits as it affected the accuracy of the stipulated ‘due to GSIS’.
In a separate finding, state auditors identified that the MMDA had yet to resolve remittance issues with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) amounting to ₱11.1 million.
CoA warned that existence of unremitted balances exposed employees of the MMDA to inordinate risks related to PhilHealth benefits, asserting that the MMDA may be “held liable for reimbursement of benefit payments.
In addition, the agency may likewise be subject to penalties, surcharges or other sanctions for delayed or non-remittance of required contributions.
