SSS: Overpaid but unqualified VPs

Drawing an SSS loan or pension is always a hassle. For a calamity loan of P6,000, a member not only must fill up tons of forms but also make sure his past and present bosses remitted his contributions in the last 18 months. And for that measly P3,000-pension, a retiree must get out of sick bed and make a personal appearance at the cashier’s window. But rules are rules. SSS executives insist on compliance for the good of all 25 million members and pensioners.

Yet those executives break the rules for their own existence. A study reveals that only a handful of 29 SSS executives, one of every five, are eligible for their jobs. One hundred fifty-five others, all receiving pay and perks of P50,000 to P250,000 a month, have not taken qualifying exams to merit their rank. Rules are not rules for SSS executives. They’re mere scraps of paper that even Malacañang-appointed trustees choose to ignore.

The study will be used by some concerned SSS managers to sue the executives and trustees for violating the SSS Charter and the Civil Service Law. It is a takeoff from an earlier report of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel for the nine trustees to enforce the rules once and for all.

The OGCC as far back as Nov. 2001 had declared the 155 positions illegal. Then-SSS president Vitaliano Nañagas had sought its opinion soon after promoting in July a lawyer and an aide to executive vice president and assistant VP. Another lawyer, one of three managers who had applied for the lower position, questioned the credentials of the aide. Backing off, Nañagas formed a review panel composed of executive vice president Horacio Templo and trustees Efren Aranzamendez and Teresita Alegre. The panel noted that Nañagas did not clear the appointment with the Executive Promotion Board before endorsing it to the board of trustees. Worse, the aide had not taken the Career Executive Service exam required for the position, much less the Civil Service Eligibility exam to qualify for any government job. The panel endorsed the complaining lawyer for AVP and the aide to a lower temporary post. It also recommended that Nañagas consider a longer-serving senior VP for the rank of executive VP.

While we’re at it, Nañagas thought, we might as well review all other past promotions, especially those made by his predecessor during the Estrada administration. So he submitted to the OGCC a list of all 184 SSS executives. The result was scathing. But Nañagas was no longer at the SSS to read it; an employee strike in Aug. 2001 led by no less than Templo and 11 other executives forced him out of office.

In calling the 155 positions illegal, then-OGCC chief Amado Valdez pointed to the rules governing promotions. The 1997 SSS Charter specifies that only persons who have passed the Civil Service Eligibility exam may be hired for any position. It further states that the Civil Service Law applies to executive positions. That law requires Career Executive Service (CES) exams to become an officer in any government agency that is not subject to election or Malacañang appointment. Any vacancy must be relayed to the CES Board, which must then have it published in newspapers. Only when nobody applies for the position, and subject to approval of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Malacañang, may a non-CES examinee take it on – and only for 12 months. Within that period the temporary appointee must pass the CES exam or else lose the post. Under no circumstance may the appointee be promoted to higher rank or pay scale.

Yet the OGCC found out that most of the 155 executives had been promoted in rank and pay several times without taking the CES test. Thus, while their first 12 months in office were legal, their subsequent tenures and promotions are not.

The OGCC painted four scenarios – all grim – for the SSS trustees:

• One, preserving the status quo would prejudice both the SSS and the 155 executives. Since their promotion after the first 12 months were void from the start, their actions and decisions similarly can be viewed as void. More than that, the SSS would have to take back their salaries and perks, plus interest. The trustees could also be sued for wilful violation of the law. Even the executives may be sued. The Revised Penal Code (Art. 77) punishes with imprisonment and fine any person who usurps authority by "knowingly and falsely represent(ing) himself to be an officer, agent or representative of any department or agency of the Government ... or, under pretense of official position, shall perform any act pertaining to any person in authority or public officer of the Government." The Code also prescribes imprisonment (Art. 237) for "any public officer who continues to exercise the duties and powers of his office, employment or commission beyond the period provided by law, regulation or provisions applicable to the case."

• Two, the SSS temporarily may preserve the status quo long enough for the executives to obtain eligibility. But the OGCC was quick to add that this presumes a suspension of the SSS Charter and Civil Service Law. Since it cannot be done, the risks are the same as the first scenario.

• Three, the trustees could issue new appointments – valid for 12 months – to legitimize the employment of the ineligible executives. Still, the OGCC warned, the new papers cannot legitimize the earlier ones. The trustees may be sued under the Code (Art. 244) for unlawful appointments, to wit: "Any person who shall knowingly nominate or apppoint to public office any person lacking the legal qualifications therefor shall suffer the penalty of arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding P1,000."

• Four, the executives may be converted to contractual personnel. Again, the OGCC pointed out that the trustees may be sued similar to the third scenario.

In effect, the OGCC implied as far back as Nov. 2001 that the trustees and executives had no choice but to follow the law. Nañagas’s successor, Corazon dela Paz, is reluctant to rock the boat after the strike, however. She has been quoted as saying she can live with the violations since "the problem already existed even before I came into SSS."

The OGCC wondered why certain SSS officers tasked with checking the rules let the violations go on for years. It found out that the very senior vice president for administration and personel, Marla Laurel, was among the 155 ieligible executives. Laurel, too, joined the strike.

* * *

Catch Linawin Natin, Mondays at 11 p.m., on IBC-13.

* * *

You can e-mail comments to: [email protected].