A team of Auditors – Inspectors of the National Transparency Authority (NTA) carried out an audit on the Electronic National Social Security Fund (e-EFKA) between 26.04.2022 and 27.06.2022, following reports from the Panhellenic Federation of Unions of Engineers of Public Employees with Diplomas of Higher Schools (P.O.E.M.D.Y.D.A.S), regarding incorrect debts charged to engineers with exclusive salaried employment in the public sector, as until the entry into force of Law 4387/2016, they were subject to a single Register with freelancers.
Civil Servant Engineers were wrongly shown as self-employed and appeared as liable to pay contributions when they were not. In the debt clearance for 2019, incorrect "freelancer" insurance debts were posted for thousands of insured Public Employee Engineers and forwarded to the Centre for the Collection of Insurance Debts (CIRC) despite the fact that the insurance contributions were paid.
The consequence of the above was:
- the loss of the insurance capacity of the civil servant engineers and their dependants from 1.3.2022
- the inability to perform scheduled medical operations and prescriptions
- the impossibility of granting insurance cover
- the taking of enforcement measures against them through the seizure of bank accounts.
The competent Directorate of the Institution searched for data from the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) and an automatic interruption of insurance and issuance of the notices from 1.1.2020 for thousands of insured non-self-employed persons was carried out. The automated process was repeated in March 2022 for the years from 2017 to 2019 with retroactive cancellation of contributions/debts. In addition, the NTA's team recommended to the management of the institution to take the following actions:
- check within three months the entries in the register of non-employees
- to include these insured persons in a separate register from the self-employed
- to make a correlation between the results of the clearance and the data sent to the Centre for the Recovery of Insurance Debts (KEAO) for correction and automatic cancellation of the debt
- automated individual notification of insured persons for possible (corrective) actions when they receive notifications
- electronic filing of supporting documents and instructions to their employment services for the reimbursement or offsetting of additional deductions due which were made through payroll.
In response to the recommendations of the NTA’s team of Auditors- Inspectors, the e-EFKA has initiated the necessary procedures in collaboration with the agencies and contractors involved in order to ensure the correct implementation of the provisions with a view to better serving the insured persons.