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Issue No. 33                       September 29 - October 5,  2001                Quezon City, Philippines

Bayan Muna Calls for GSIS Charter Change

Unscrupulous and spoiled officials of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) continue to receive exorbitant salaries because the law allows them to do so. For Bayan Muna Rep. Crispin Beltran, the solution is simple: Change the GSIS charter now.

BY ANNE MARIE HERNANDEZ
Bulatlat.com

The charter of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) should be changed to remove the legal basis that justifies the "exorbitant" salaries of its "unscrupulous and spoiled" officials.

Labor leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Crispin Beltran recommended this solution to finally put an end to the controversy surrounding the scandalous salaries of GSIS officials.

The Commission on Audit (COA) disclosed over the weekend that top officials of the government financial institution (GFI) receive as much as P724,000 ($14,145) in Christmas bonus apart from their already highly anomalous monthly salaries.

Apart from employing moral suasion, the national government, however, is almost inutile in blocking the GSIS executives from splurging government workers' funds citing restrictions from the GSIS charter.

According to a COA report, the GSIS president and members of the board of trustees each get a Christmas bonus of P723,968 ($14,144).

In addition, executives get a monthly take-home pay amounting to hundreds of thousands, even much higher than the salary of the President of the Philippines who gets roughly P50,000 ($977) monthly.

The GSIS president, with a salary grade of 31, receives monthly pay of P564,869.55 ($11,035.84) which includes a basic salary of P356,979 ($6,974).

The lowest paid GSIS employee or the laborer, who has a salary grade of 3, gets a monthly take-home pay of P27,021.50 ($527.92) including his basic salary of P14,670 ($286.61).

On the average, the salaries and allowances of GSIS executives and employees are about eight to 10 times more than their counterparts in other government agencies.

"This is one Charter Change the people can approve of," Beltran said. "(It) should be overhauled to ensure that GSIS officials and the GSIS board will not be colluding to increase their respective salaries and benefits."

Outraged over the latest disclosure on the exorbitant salaries and benefits top GSIS officials continue to receive, Beltran said the officials should be punished for remaining defiant.

A few months ago, President Macapagal-Arroyo ordered officials of government financial institutions including GSIS to voluntarily cut their salaries after receiving reports that top officials were receiving hundreds of thousands in monthly salaries.

Beltran also lamented the national government's inaction on the matter months after it has first been exposed.

"(A)s government officials, they should not be receiving monthly salaries…equal to the combined monthly paychecks of a hundred clerks and secretaries," the labor leader-solon maintained.

Beltran said that the "spoiled and pampered government officials" would most likely use as an excuse for their high salaries the fact that GSIS rank and file employees are also receiving higher than the usual basic pay.

But he said that based on daily cost of living standards, workers and employees should be getting a minimum of P15,000 ($293) monthly to be able to satisfactorily meet physical, mental, and psychological needs.

Thus, Beltran said, even if GSIS employees receive P15,697 ($306.67) in basic pay and salary, it would still be justified.

"The point is, the salaries of all rank-and-file government employees should be pulled up by a minimum of P3,000 ($58.61). The rank and file employees of the GSIS should not be blamed for receiving salaries and benefits higher than those given to their counterparts in other government agencies and offices," he said.

Beltran said that his office has been receiving an average of five letters daily from retired government employees asking his help to push for an increase in their monthly pension.

"These retirees point out that what they receive is far from being enough to tide them over in their old age," he said.

"Now it turns out that the pensions that should have been going to the retirees and their families have been going into the salaries of spoiled GSIS officials," Beltran added.

He also said that it was clear that the GSIS pushed to have itself exempted from the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) not because there is continuing need to make its operation and management more effective but because its top executives did not want government -level salaries.

"They wanted salaries like those received by CEOs of top corporations. If that's what they want, then they should get out of government service," Beltran said.

The labor leader-solon reiterated his call for the immediate scrapping of the GSIS Employees Loyalty Incentive Plan (ELIP), which he brands as another "racket" of GSIS officials to rake in bigger bucks for themselves.

"These officials are making the most of their years in the GSIS to feather their own nests, and woe betide the pensioners and GSIS members," Beltran lamented. Bulatlat.com

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