STATE-run pension fund Social Security System (SSS) said it would not be affected by the proposed rightsizing of the bureaucracy and is even in need of additional personnel at present.
SSS President and CEO Michael G. Regino said the agency is well ahead of the proposed rightsizing of government agencies and have started measures toward such direction sans the approved legislation.
Regino said that the SSS is even undermanned and is currently hiring to “improve the efficiency of the agency’s delivery of services.”
“We are doing this ahead; we are not even waiting for the bill. We see it as the way moving forward and we believe that we have to correct the plantilla number early on,” he told reporters.
Regino explained the SSS’s plantilla was originally 13,000 when he came in.
“We reviewed it and I explained to them [Social Security Commission, or SSC] that we could not have 13,000 employees of SSS,” he added. “We have to increase the productivity of each person and increase our level of digitalization.”
After the review, Regino said they came up with a total plantilla of 8,500, which was submitted to Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, who chairs the SSC. However, the current workforce of SSS is about 7,600, Regino added.
“That is the most efficient level I believe so for the next three to four years. Do we need to review again after four years? Maybe,” he said. “We are hiring more personnel because when I went to the field, the queues were long. We need additional personnel, more on the field work in the branches.”
Digitization efforts
REGINO said the SSS is continuously hiring more people in information technology in line with the agency’s digitization efforts.
“[There will be] no job cuts for SSS when the government right-sizes the bureaucracy,” he said.
Regino said that about 72 percent of SSS’s transactions are already digitized, noting that once the level of digitalization increases the agency might need fewer employees in certain divisions.
“As we continue digitizing and when we see more Filipinos are digitized, you would need less people in the branches. We may tap them to do other things,” he said. “We consider SSS as one of the government offices in the forefront of digitization.”
In his first State of the Nation Address, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. identified the national government rightsizing program (NGRP) as one of his administration’s priority legislations. The NGRP aims to enable the government to enhance its institutional capacity to provide better services while ensuring efficient use of resources.
“The proposed NGRP will entail a comprehensive strategic review of the functions, operations, organization, systems and processes of the different agencies and massive and transformational initiatives in the agencies concerned, such as mergers, consolidation, splitting, transfer and even the abolition of some offices,” Marcos said last July.
Last month, state-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) expressed concern over the administration’s plan to right-size the bureaucracy, saying it may put a strain on contributions to the pension fund. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2022/08/01/gsis-concerned-over-rightsizing-scheme/)