Compliance regarding the payment of contributions is important for all types of contributory schemes, including voluntary and subsidized ones, as it provides the evidence of eligibility and ensures the financing for the accrued benefits.

The specific guidelines in this section are:

The communication framework, strategies and plans emanate from the mandate, mission and vision of the institution. Communication reinforces the institution’s abiding commitment to its mission, vision and values.

The communication unit develops a unique corporate design for the institution derived from the institution’s mission and vision. All communication materials and activities of the institution use the corporate design as a branding tool.

These guidelines are intended to cover all the key components of a contribution collection and compliance system. Some are necessarily general, such as those covering the mission, strategy, communication, etc., and could be applied to other social security contexts. But others are quite specific to contribution collection and compliance:

The institution implements the key processes of collecting contributions and transferring corresponding amounts to the fund or social programme administration.

These processes play a fundamental role in the sustainability of the social programmes because they enable the transfer of the financial resources they are intended to receive.

The institution designs and implements permanent evaluation mechanisms for the contribution collection and compliance system.

Permanent and systematic evaluation should be based on performance indicators and service quality evaluation involving the main stakeholders and the public. Using a standard model increases the institution’s ability to compare its performance against institutions in other countries with similar contribution collection schemes.

There is a board-approved strategic plan that lays down and spells out the key strategies and plans of action to be implemented by the management in order to realize and perform the legislated mandate of the institution.

Dynamism is the governance element of innovation or positive change, the effect of which is to henceforth improve the efficiency of an organization.

Governance may well be in accordance with the principles of accountability, transparency, participation and predictability. The principle of dynamism improves on the status quo and enables the institution to be more faithful to its mandate and to respond to the evolving needs of its members.

The management establishes a code of ethics and a set of standards and benchmarks for its officers and staff.

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.

The implementation of audit findings and recommendations are time bound and monitored.

The institution ensures the separation of the investment assets that are managed by external fund managers from its own operating assets, to enhance accountability and transparency.

The board ensures that the institution’s human resources policies promote decent work conditions which, as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO), are based on the understanding that work is a source of personal dignity, family stability and peace in the community. This includes providing a work environment that is safe, allows adequate rest and time for family, provides adequate compensation and access to social security protection, and respects the rights of workers regardless of gender, race or creed.

The institution develops an ICT strategy and innovation prospective as the cornerstone of an integrated institutional view of the current business, the future direction for the ICT environment, and the initiatives required to reach the desired future environment.

The institution establishes a data governance framework to formalize the exercise of authority and control (planning, monitoring and enforcement) over the management of data assets.

The data governance function guides how all other data management functions are performed.

The institution establishes security measures to enforce data privacy policies for personal and sensitive data in particular.

This covers specific security issues affecting the implementation of a global system for the protection of privacy and personal data, and measures specifically related to privacy and personal data (covering both routine files containing personal data and sensitive personal data files).

The institution establishes strategies, policies and plans for implementing the Master Data Governance and Master Data Management Programmes.

The institution defines its mission, roles and governance structure to implement the operations of the international social security agreements under its mandate in order to protect the social security rights of migrant workers.

If applicable, the institution participates in defining the governance structure for the international and inter-institutional levels.

This section addresses the definition of operational processes and information models related to operations between institutions implementing international social security agreements.

Information models may be based on the “data exchange forms” as usually defined.

While information models and notifications are defined at the international level, there may be operational processes (or sub-processes) to be defined at national and institutional levels.

The specific guidelines in this section are:

It is important that the way the bodies responsible for the investment process are set up and interact ensures that the investment governance process can be carried out effectively and in line with objectives.

The bodies and their roles and responsibilities need to be defined clearly. How the bodies work together and interact is also important to ensure coordination in the duties undertaken and that governance objectives are ultimately met.

Active, passive or hybrid mandates are implemented to achieve the identified investment objective considering the governance budget, investment beliefs and investment efficiency.

Sufficient selection due diligence is conducted when selecting external fund managers.

The board defines a prevention strategy to provide both internal and external guidance.

The institution undertakes campaigns for the transfer of prevention information and to raise awareness on prevention topics or health and safety targets.

Campaigns are a very effective tool as they are typically broadcast through several media channels and attract far more attention than sporadic advertising activities.

The institution provides measuring services to monitor and document the impact on the workplace of chemical or biological factors, exposure to hazardous substances and elements such as noise or vibration.

The results of valid measurement provide a solid basis for monitoring preventive action and the need for improvements, for research projects on the impact of workplace exposures and for the setting of threshold limits. The results of measurements also provide a basis for fair compensation in the event of an insurance claim.