The National Electrification Administration (NEA) recently issued a new memorandum directing all electric cooperatives (ECs) to submit copies of their respective board resolutions with respect to the retirement fund of their employees.

NEA Deputy Administrator (DA) for EC Management Services Omar Mayo signed the memo dated 15 March 2024.

DA Mayo underscored the importance of retirement planning for all ECs. Consequently, under NEA’s 2023 Policy/Guidelines on Annual EC Overall Performance Assessment, the availability of a retirement fund/plan is among the institutional governance parameters in evaluating the performance of general managers.

“In view of this, all ECs with retirement fund allocation for regular employees are hereby directed to submit a copy of the EC Board Resolution issued for this purpose, including updates/status of retirement fund accounts/management and agreements related thereto to the NEA Institutional Development Department (IDD) not later than 27 March 2024,” the Memo stated.

In a separate memo dated 20 March 2024, DA Mayo also reminded that retirement funds are resources of the ECs. “As such any and all disbursements relative thereto should be with the proper endorsement of the cooperative officers,” he said.

DA Mayo noted that disbursements relative to retirement funds should be with the proper endorsement of the EC Board President, Treasurer, General Manager, Acting General Manager, Officer-In-Charge, and Project Supervisors, as the case may be,  and not any constituted board of trustees.

NEA released the memos after Administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda ordered a probe into the missing retirement funds of the Nueva Ecija II Area 2 Electric Cooperative, Inc. (NEECO II Area 2), which was brought to his attention last 07 March 2024.

Administrator Almeda placed at least six members of the NEECO II Area 2 board of trustees, who were put in charge of the retirement fund, under a 90-day preventive suspension on 12 March 2024 while the investigation is ongoing.

The decision was made by virtue of the NEA Reform Act of 2013, which authorizes the state-owned corporation to impose disciplinary measures against erring EC officers. The NEA also sought the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct its own independent probe to determine who should be held accountable for the incident. ###