Legislation, policy or decree establishes the breadth of a social security institution’s functions and responsibilities. There are social security programmes that are wholly budget financed and hence would have no mandate to collect contributions from the population to be covered. For others, coverage and contributions collection are administered by an office other than that which administers benefits and services. Some programmes are designed to have no accumulated reserve funds, while others may be authorized to have internal or external managers to manage fund investments. Yet others have fund management institutions wholly separate and independent from those which administer member contributions and/or benefits.

Some or all of the following guidelines may be relevant to a particular social security institution, depending on its mandate. Guidance is provided in nine specific areas of social security administration:

• Strategic planning;
• Operational risk management;
• Internal audit of operations;
• Actuarial soundness;
• Enforcing the prudent person principle in investment management;
• Prevention and control of corruption and fraud in contributions and benefits;
• Service standards for members and beneficiaries;
• Human resources policies: Development, retention and succession;
• Investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure.

The guidelines support and promote the following five principles of good governance, as applied to social security institutions:

1. Accountability

2. Transparency

3. Predictability

4. Participation

5. Dynamism