Encouraged by the Supreme Court decision upholding the right of the Social Security System (SSS) to take legal action against employers who have been remiss in settling their contribution delinquencies, SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Rolando Ledesma Macasaet ordered an increase in the frequency of its Run After Contribution Evaders (RACE) Campaign nationwide.
“Our RACE Campaign must be working,” Macasaet said as he reported that the amount of unremitted members’ contributions from delinquent employers have plummeted by almost 40 percent in 2023.
Macasaet said that uncollected contributions in 2022 stood at P92 billion, but SSS successfully brought it down by 39 percent to P56 billion in 2023 on the back of aggressively pursuing delinquent employers and continuously updating employer records.
In 2022, the Commission on Audit (COA) called out the SSS for failing to collect over P92 billion from half a million delinquent employers. According to state auditors, 466,881 employers did not remit P92.49 billion in premium contributions, penalties, and damages.
In a statement, Macasaet said the SSS has filed cases in court against 2,422 errant employers, majority of which have opted to settle their delinquencies either through full payment or via installment schemes, resulting in a record-high collection P1.37 billion in 2023 from P1.15 billion in 2022
Macasaet explained that the decrease in unremitted contributions could be attributed to the high collection of delinquencies from employers not remitting their employees’ contributions.
Macasaet also explained that the RACE Campaign is one of the programs that played a vital role in pursuing delinquent employers nationwide.
“We issued Show Cause Orders or Notices of Violation to delinquent employers and instructed them to report to SSS within 15 days to settle their unpaid contributions and corresponding penalties or face legal consequences for violating RA 11199,” Macasaet said. He added that in 2023, SSS conducted 587 RACE operations nationwide and issued written notices to 4,923 delinquent employers.
Last month, the Supreme Court (SC) rejected an appeal filed by a real estate company, which was found by a lower court to have failed to remit employee contributions to the SSS on time.
In a seven-page resolution, the SC Second Division upheld a decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) against RGV Real Estate Center, Inc. for violating the Social Security Law for failure to remit contributions.
Last month, the Supreme Court (SC) rejected an appeal filed by a real estate company, which was found by a lower court to have failed to remit employee contributions to the SSS on time.
In a seven-page resolution, the SC Second Division upheld a decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) against RGV Real Estate Center, Inc. for violating the Social Security Law for failure to remit contributions.
Macasaet said the SSS RACE operations have been institutionalized into the mainstream branch operational procedures in addition to systems enhancements made on regular collection, improved interoperability among concerned internal offices/units involved in collection, introduction of the administrative collection remedy of issuance of a Warrant of Distraint, Levy, and Garnishment (WDLG), partnership with various Regulatory & Law Enforcement Agencies through Memorandum of Agreements, and judicial recourse to our Criminal Courts nationwide.
Aside from improved collection from delinquent employers, Macasaet said that SSS also updated its records since it discovered that many of the reported contribution collectibles were from establishments that no longer operated, resulting in overstated statements of accounts (SOAs) being issued by SSS.
Macasaet added that SSS Account Officers and branch personnel visually inspected the establishments and discovered that many of these businesses had ceased operations.
