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 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 April 4, 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 P1.37 billion collection 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.
He added that the RACE campaign is one of the programs that played a vital role in pursuing delinquent employers nationwide.
The RACE is an operation conducted by the state fund to ensure that employers comply with their obligation, as stipulated in Republic Act No. 11199, or the Social Security Act of 2018.
Macasaet said that only selected SSS branch offices conducted RACE campaigns in previous years, adding that he has ordered the beefing up of the initiative by requiring all branch offices nationwide to carry out RACE campaigns in their respective areas.
“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.
Last year, 587 RACE operations were conducted nationwide, including in Bacolod City and neighboring areas, and issued written notices to 4,923 delinquent employers.
Last month, the 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.
“Needless to say, the entitlement and amount of benefit and privilege of (SSS) members are adversely affected by the non-remittance of the much-needed contributions. Any divergence from the rule subjects the employer not only to monetary sanctions but also to criminal prosecution,” the SC ruled.
Macasaet said the RACE operations have been institutionalized into the mainstream branch’s 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 regulatory and law enforcement agencies through memoranda of agreement, and judicial recourse via 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.
He added that account officers and branch personnel visually inspected the establishments and discovered that many of these businesses had ceased operations. ||
