Bonus granted by GCG, not by trustees of GSIS

This refers to Timothy Daquioag’s letter (“GSIS bonuses, despite inaction,” 11/8/13).

We would like to clarify that the authority to grant bonuses is no longer lodged with the GSIS Board of Trustees. This authority now falls under the purview of the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), the central oversight and policymaking body for GOCCs, created under Republic Act No. 10149 (GOCC Governance Act of 2011).  As such, the GCG determines the compensation of the board of directors/trustees of GOCCs.

Under the PBI (Performance-Based Bonus/ Incentive) System, the commission evaluates the performance of the organization and its board using specific criteria and yearend targets. GOCCs that attained a weighted-average of 90 percent based on these criteria (scorecard) may apply with the GCG for authorization to grant the PBI. In 2012, the GSIS successfully met its targets across all metrics. This enabled the pension fund’s employees and trustees to receive the incentive.

It should be noted, however, that the incentive received by the board is limited to per diems for actual attendance and based on performance—unlike in the past, when compensation was higher regardless of company performance and there was no transparency in its determination.

On our educational preneed program Edu-Plan, we would like to inform Daquioag that the GSIS now pays the scholar’s summer classes as long as the subjects are required in the curriculum and these can only be taken up during summer. This reversed the previous policy that excluded summer classes from the fees to be paid.

In fact, on Dec. 5, 2012, the GSIS wrote Daquioag and advised him to submit a certification from the school that the subjects enrolled by the scholar may only be taken during summer to facilitate the processing of his claim.

On the five-year prescription period on availment, we would like to point out that the rule (Section 8) is clearly stipulated in the contract signed by the planholders and is therefore not a violation of the agreement.

On the maximum allowable limit imposed on the payment of the benefit, we would like to emphasize that this is a measure to preserve the life of the plan amid the crisis in the pre-need industry. To exercise fairness and equity, the GSIS ensures that those who paid the same amount of premium will be entitled to the same amount of benefits.

The Edu-Child is still anti-inflationary in the sense that if a scholar enters a school covered by a particular category (government, private or exclusive) stated in the plan, the tuition fee to be paid by the GSIS will still be higher than the total contract price paid by the planholder. Considering the crisis which affected the preneed industry because of the deregulation in tuition fees, the GSIS is perhaps one of the few institutions in the country that continues to honor its obligations as they fall due.

—ROBERT G. VERGARA,

president and general manager,

Government Service Insurance System