TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Taspen and Asabri are refusing to hand over the management of government employees’ pension funds to the State Social Security Agency. The government must be firm.

AFTER years in the making, the management handover for civil servants and military insurance has not been performed. The government must be firm in arranging the transfer of management from Taspen and Asabri to the State Social Security Agency (BP Jamsostek). This transfer is already regulated under the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS) law.

The BPJS law, which came into effect in 2011, appoints BP Jamsostek as the institution in charge of old-age security and pension funds from Taspen and Asabri beginning 2029. In a series of handovers called the partial transformation, Asabri and Taspen are required to draft a road map for the transfer of management for old-age social security and pension funds to BP Jamsostek by 2014 at the latest. But the program has been stranded, only becoming the source of heated debate.

Five years past the 2014 deadline, technical regulations for the handover – in the form of government regulation – have not been issued, although they should have been issued two years after the BPJS law came into effect. Of course, Taspen and Asabri’s managements have not yet announced a road map for the partial transformation program. The predicament grew even more complicated after several Taspen and Asabri customers filed a judicial review of the BPJS law with the Constitutional Court out of worry that their old-age security and pension funds would be reduced if they were managed by BP Jamsostek, which also covers private employees.

It is only natural to wonder if the law’s implementation is obstructed by Taspen and Asabri’s reluctance to hand over the funds they manage. The two companies once recommended revising the BPJS law and the national social security law to the House of Representatives. Asabri even planned an Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Police BPJS law, reasoning members of these institutions are prone to high risks, meaning their social security requires special formula and treatment.

Taspen and Asabri’s management should stop maneuvering to reject the partial transformation. After all, there is an opportunity for the two companies to create pension funds and old-age security formulas with BP Jamsostek by calculating the risk levels of members of the police and military, as well as civil servants – including by accommodating the premium difference between private employees and members of the military, police, and civil servants, which are paid for by the state.

The exclusive management of military members and civil servants’ pension funds is also prone to corruption at the risk of state losses. The dwindling funds managed by Asabri and Taspen due to bad investment is one proof. Ironically, institutions that should have functioned as monitoring institutions, such as the state-owned enterprises ministry, defense ministry, and Financial Services Authority (OJK), seemed to have trouble controlling these two companies’ performance. Transferring management to one institution would make monitoring easier.

On the other hand, the government must improve and strictly monitor BP Jamsostek’s performance because the institution will be managing a great amount of money at Rp750 trillion. With this much money managed, BP Jamsostek will have a substantial force in the financial market and the opportunity for significant gains. Law enforcement and the OJK must not be negligent in monitoring BP Jamsostek’s investments, so that the fund it manages does not evaporate due to bad investment instruments, such as in the case of Jiwasraya.

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