The debate on the pension reform that will be presented by the Government on February 6 to Congress began firmly.
Among the different positions that have been disclosed so far, without fully knowing the articles, is that of the Comptroller General, Carlos Hernán Rodríguez, who convened a forum called “Pension reform, a view from fiscal control.”
The comptroller points out that, if a pension reform is generated, the system must curb fraud, undertake policies to reduce labor informality and provide greater equity to workers.
In his presentation, Comptroller Rodríguez said that “it is a priority to correct the shortcomings and weaknesses that the pension system has shown during those decades, related to its fiscal sustainability, and in this sense, that a model be adopted that rationalizes the burden that it is generating on public finances. However, that the fiscal efforts or solidarity contributions are to achieve, mainly, that people of pension age can retire as a right that all Colombians have to have a safe and calm old age”.
Likewise, he said that “another front that must be addressed is that related to fraud against the social security system and thereby eliminate the possibilities of diversion of public resources, because this also guarantees institutional stability and prevents constitutional rights from being violated, All this without losing sight of the importance of advancing in the country in a productive system and a labor market that reduces informality, since without this it will be very difficult to achieve greater pension coverage, even if reforms are made in the parameters that govern the current system.
Roof
The comptroller added that “the results observed in terms of coverage, financing and equity, among others, must be taken into account, which will make it possible to address the main challenges and adjustments that can be made to the system to improve it, in such a way that it increases coverage under a sustainable and equitable system”.
In his speech, the comptroller maintained that “to dignify is to guarantee access to and the granting of the pension. Without losing sight of the fact that our General Pension System (SGP) is made up of the old public system in charge of the Average Premium Regime (RPM) with defined benefit, administered by Colpensiones; and by the new system in charge of the Individual Savings with Solidarity Regime (RAIS), managed by the pension fund management companies, entities that operate in competition. This model is called parallel.
“With this I want to highlight that we have a system in which they cohabit and compete, a public regime, Colpensiones, which works with a distribution model in which the contributions of the people who are working enter a bag system that is used to pay the pensions of the elderly who are already retired, compared to a private scheme in which contributors save in individual accounts, whose administration is carried out by a private fund, which invests these resources so that when the At the time of retiring, the person receives the savings they made, plus interest, on a monthly basis.
Models
The official explains that “currently, in both models, the requirements to obtain a minimum pension are 57 years of age for women and 62 years of age for men, with a minimum number of weeks contributed which in the public system is 1,300 and in the private of 1,150. However, in the private regime there is an exemption to these requirements, depending on the amount of capital saved, while the age and time requirements are maintained for all affiliates.
Rodríguez considers that the characterization of the Colombian pension system is not easy, since it is built within a complex institutional framework in which the labor market plays a fundamental role. “This process is currently guided by the parameters established in Law 100 of 1993 and some changes introduced to this standard.”