BACOLOD CITY, Philippines?Newly installed Government Service Insurance System chairman Daniel Lacson allayed fears that the pension fund for state employees was bankrupt, saying the institution was ?in good shape? with over P500 billion in net assets.

Lacson said that a GSIS financial report showed that as of June 30, 2010, it had a reserve of P541 billion plus an unassigned surplus of P38 billion.

?The GSIS is not bankrupt. Perceptions have run wild because of lack of communication and a lot of people became cynical about GSIS,? he said here on Friday.

Lacson said it was unfair to condemn the so-called bad investments of the GSIS in the past. ?We?re going through a review of all those investments first,? he said.

He said an independent audit would also be conducted on instructions of President Aquino to establish the exact financial status of GSIS, Lacson said.

Lacson said GSIS did lose money in its Global Investment Program of $800 million because of the financial meltdown but the company made money on foreign exchange. He explained that when the GSIS made the Global investment, the peso to the dollar exchange was only P42 but when they disposed of the investment, the exchange was already P47 to a dollar, thus allowing a 6 percent return on currency in two years, he said.

Lacson said they were now looking into the GSIS investments, such as those made in the stock market and on paintings.

Alongside the financial audit, Lacson they are also looking into how to streamline the GSIS electronic operation, particularly in light of the complaints of GSIS members that they could not access information about their pensions using the automated cards issued to them by the insurance system.

Lacson said President Aquino has instructed him to look at all these complaints.

He stressed that GSIS will continue to move toward an electronic system of serving its members, who eventually will no longer have to go to the GSIS offices for their needs, but communicate through computers for information on their records and loan applications, he said.

?One day our web will have everything people need to know to the limit that we are allowed to divulge. We are going to be service oriented,? he said.

He said the kinks in the GSIS centralized computer system are being ironed out ensure that members will receive their pensions on time.

?There is a new IT team and new hardware and software. By December, I am being promised we will be back to normal,? Lacson said.

GSIS operations on Negros Island have also been streamlined since the GSIS office in Barangay Tangub, Bacolod City, was made a regional office starting last June, he said.

The Bacolod office will serve 55,000 GSIS members in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, he said.

GSIS members in Negros Occidental will no longer have to go to Iloilo, and those in Negros Oriental won?t have to go Cebu to process their papers, he said.

The GSIS regional office in Iloilo will serve the needs of the provinces on Panay Island?Iloilo, Antique, Aklan and Capiz?and Guimaras.