BFP: P12M paid to dead pensioners ‘recovered’

The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) did “erroneously” release more than P12 million in pension benefits to deceased retirees last year. But the amount has already been “recovered” through deductions from the monthly pension benefits of their survivors.

The 2014 Commission on Audit report on the BFP, recently posted on the agency’s website, showed that in 2014, the BFP paid P12,399,170.69 in pension benefits to more or less 150 deceased retirees, from one month to 12 months after their deaths.

According to the COA, the “erroneous” payment was due to delayed reporting of the deaths, and consequently, the delayed updating of the roster of pensioners.

In a statement, the BFP clarified that though the pension benefits were “indeed erroneously released…this problem was immediately addressed by the agency through deduction from the pensions of the survivors or beneficiaries of the said deceased pensioners.”

This was done “either through [the] cancelation of retirement pension checks or correction of survivorship pension in the ATM accounts based on the death certificates submitted by the BFP regional offices.”

Upon the death of the retirees, the monthly pension would go to their survivors, but it should only be 75 percent of the monthly retirement pay the retiree was receiving. Due to delays in reporting the deaths, the deceased retirees’ beneficiaries had been receiving the full amount, prompting the BFP to make the retroactive “corrections” to the survivors’ pensions.

Responding to the COA report, BFP spokesperson Supt. Renato Marcial said in a phone interview: “The COA report is true, but [news reports] weren’t able to mention the government was able to recover it.”

According to BFP chief Director Ariel Barayuga, there had been delays in the deletion of pension benefits from the regular payroll due to the late submission of death certificates of the deceased pensioners to the BFP Retirement Benefits Section.