GSIS 'overpaid' by P6 million, Caloocan administrator claims

MANILA, Philippines - Amid charges of grave misconduct against Mayor Recom Echiverri for alleged non-payment of Caloocan City employees’ premiums to the Government Service Insurance System, city administrator Russell Ramirez yesterday said “reconciled records” showed that they even had overpayments by more than P6 million.

“We work overtime for more than four months just to update and reconcile the city government’s GSIS records and we found out that we even have an overpayment of P6,261,375.45 to the GSIS,” Ramirez, who is also the head of the local government records reconciliation team, told The STAR.

Ramirez said they would present “within the week” their updated records to the GSIS to reconcile it with the agency’s own documentation.

Ramirez also assured the local employees that the city government did not err in remitting their contributions to the GSIS and blamed computer glitches that caused record discrepancies for the controversy.

On Monday, acting ombudsman Orlando Casimiro ordered the suspension of Echiverri for six months over the alleged non-payment of city employees’ premiums reportedly amounting to P343.81 million.

The six months preventive suspension stemmed from the petition filed by Vice Mayor Edgar Erice last July 11, which Casimiro granted on July 17, a Sunday.

“That’s the quickest action by the ombudsman I’ve ever known on a similar case,” Ramirez said.

Echiverri remained defiant of the ombudsman order yesterday, assuring his constituents and supporters, who held a program in front of the city hall, that “it’s business as usual” in Caloocan City.

“Work at the city hall remains normal and services would be served as usual,” Echiverri said.

The mayor maintained that charges against him were “anchored on baseless accusations” and is causing “great injustice” to Caloocan City residents.

He said that since February 2006, the Caloocan City government has been coordinating with the GSIS for the “reconciliation of erroneous records” adding that the local government has been continuously paying the employees’ contribution.