Accurate reporting among GSI sought

This directive is in line with the Duterte administration’s efforts to ensure that the financial reports of GSI are transparent and based on facts.

The Duterte administration seeks an accurate and transparent reporting of government social institutions’ (GSI) social benefit liabilities or SBL.

“This directive is in line with the Duterte administration’s efforts to ensure that the financial reports of GSI are transparent and based on facts,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said during a virtual briefing on Friday.

“It is only the Duterte administration that has acknowledged this issue and is determined to correct it once and for all in order to provide the stakeholders and policymakers with a more accurate financial situation of government social institutions,” he added.

He said GSI had not correctly reported their liabilities in their financial statements for 15 years, resulting in an overstatement of income and understatement of liabilities for years.

GSI includes the Social Security System, the Government Service Insurance System, and Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

The Department of Finance refers to SBL to a GSI’s net legal obligation to pay specific, guaranteed amounts of money or benefits to their policyholders, including actual claims and the required reserve for future claims.

The recent directive involves GSI full compliance with the Philippine Financial Reporting Standards or PFRS 4, which will ensure the accuracy and transparency of income and liabilities reporting among such institutions.

While the implementation of the directive will show a combined total liability of P9.94 trillion, the Finance chief said there is no need for the public to be alarmed as GSI remain financially sound.

Under PFRS 4, when an insurance entity receives money from its members and enters into a contract with them to provide monetary obligations when certain events occur, it must set aside a reserve to cover its liabilities.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF GO NEGOSYO PRESIDENTIAL aspirant and standard-bearer of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. joined Go Negosyo’s “Kandidatalks,” sharing his plans should he become the next President of the Philippines. Among these are rationalizing taxes and allocating portions of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) to micro, small, medium enterprises (MSME), strengthening the country’s agriculture and transport sector, and continuing President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Build Build Build“program.