COA: 7,210 dead pensioners collected P615M from AFP

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A Commission on Audit report reveals a nearly decade-long AFP oversight, with over ₱615 million paid to deceased pensioners

MANILA, Philippines – For almost a decade, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has been giving out pension payments to over 7,000 dead pensioners, said the Commission on Audit. 

COA’s 2023 audit report released on December 1, 2024, said that from 2014 to 2023 the AFP paid out P615.64 million to 7,210 deceased pensioners.

In the 2023 report of the General Headquarters-AFP, the government auditors said it was  the responsibility of the AFP Pension and Gratuity Management Center (AFPPGMC) to keep the pensioners database updated.

COA said: “The long-outstanding and uncollected accounts of AFPPGMC aged one to nine years as of December 31, 2023 consists of overpayments of pension benefits to deceased pensioners totaling ₱615,641,568.54.”

Here’s a sampling of data on pension payments verified by COA:

• In 2021, at least five deceased pensioners were paid pensions 14 to 25 after their recorded deaths.
• In 2022, 193 dead pensioners were paid pensions six to 15 months after their record deaths. The amount paid out was P55.706 million.
• In 2023, 66 dead pensioners kept receiving pensions six to nine months after they died. The total amount paid out was P13.87 million.

The AFPPGMC told COA that it has successfully updated 168,242 records of pensioners during the audit year. This was over 20.32% of its target of 139,832 accounts, added AFPGMC.

COA, however, said the accumulated excess payment throughout the years “deprives the government of beneficial use of funds and affects the fairness of the presentation of the financial statements.”

The government auditors told the AFP that it should recover the payouts, specially if it were determined that the withdrawals were made after the death of the pensioner.

The auditors said the problem was both systemic and also from the relatives of the pensioners as well.

“Among the causes of leakage costs is because some pensioners under the age of 70 passed away after their annual updating schedule and relatives either intentionally or unintentionally, deferred informing the AFPPGMC,” the COA said.

Updating of a pensioner’s account is required only once a year, usually two months before the account holder’s birthday, as mandated by existing policies.

“Ideally, once the principal pensioner dies and the pension benefit is transferred to the qualified beneficiary, the principal should be deleted immediately from the pensioners’ list to reflect the accurate number of principals and beneficiaries,” the audit team said.

COA recommended that the AFPPGMC conduct frequent follow-up validations of pensioners who fail to update their records. – Rappler.com