GSIS named Island of Good Governance

State pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) was conferred the coveted seal of Island of Good Governance (IGG) during the Public Governance Forum on March 29 at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City. 

GSIS Chairman Renato de Guzman and President and General Manager Robert Vergara accepted the award.

The prestigious seal is an honor accorded by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA) to public institutions that have transformed themselves through good governance.

To be an island of good governance, an organization must demonstrate excellence in two criteria, namely, transformation or achievement of breakthrough results that bring positive impact to the lives of its stakeholders, and sustainability or presence of evidence that governance mechanisms contribute to the attainment of the results.

GSIS was conferred the seal based on the following merits: its exceptional service as a frontline agency, as evidenced by the Excellent rating under the Anti-Red Tape Act (Arta) survey conducted by the Civil Service Commission (CSC); the proactive approach in communicating to its internal and external stakeholders, guided by its consultative, transparent, and member-focused thrust; and the commitment of the leadership team to transform GSIS into a premier pension fund institution and a center for providing world-class service to its stakeholders.

GSIS applied for IGG in June last year. Prior to the revalida, the institution was subjected to a rigorous third-party validation of its breakthrough results in October 2015 conducted by two auditing firms, the Institute of Internal Auditors of the Philippines and Deloitte Philippines.

With service responsiveness as the GSIS’s breakthrough goal, Vergara recounted before a panel of local and global governance experts at the public revalida the transformative story of GSIS from being the most member-insensitive agency in the government to be the top-rated institution in exemplary service, back to back in 2014 and 2015, under the survey.

He said the transformative efforts in the past five years have resulted in several breakthroughs that include enhanced collection and posting efficiencies; increased claims and benefits; longer actuarial fund life; ISO 9001:2008 certification for quality management systems on loans processing; and unqualified opinions by the Commission on Audit on GSIS’s financial statements since 2011.

After his presentation, the pension fund chief answered questions from the panel as the final step of the evaluation that ultimately led to the conferment of the IGG seal.

GSIS joins an elite group of IGG awardees that include Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of Trade and Industry, National Electrification Administration, Philippine Army, Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Navy, as well as the local government units of Balanga, Bataan; Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte; Talisay, Negros Occidental; Mandaue, Cebu; and Butuan, Agusan del Norte.

ISA is a nonpartisan and nonprofit governance reform institute that advocates transformative and sustainable governance in the Philippine public sector.