Assessment of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) operations Cambodia TERMS OF REFERENCE I. Background The Law on Social Security Scheme for workers covered under the Labour Law was enacted in 2002, stipulating the introduction of social security benefits and the establishment of a new administrative institution, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). According to the law, the NSSF is governed by a tripartite board of directors, comprising representatives of workers and employers (two each), and of the Government (one seat each for MOLVT, MOEF and MOH). The law stipulates the introduction of the following social security benefit branches: - a compensation fund for victims of employment injuries and occupational diseases; - a pension insurance fund; - and other benefit branches as relevant. According to the law, the schemes should cover all persons defined by the provisions of the Labour Law. However, due to the limited administrative capacity, scheme coverage has been restricted initially to cover only enterprises with eight employees or more. The extension of coverage to smaller enterprises will follow in a second stage. Anu-Kret (Sub-Decree) No. 16 E.S. on the establishment of the NSSF was passed in March 2007, providing the legal basis for administrative arrangements and the implementation of the scheme. Following its establishment, a Prakas (ministerial regulation) on benefit entitlements was adopted by the MOLVT in February 2008 and the scheme started operations in November of that year. II. The Employment Injury Scheme With technical and financial support from the ILO, the employment injury branch was launched in November 2008 as the first benefit branch implemented under the social security law, 2002. To date, it covers 6,470 firms and 1,105,890 employees, 70.74% of which are women -mainly due to their heavy participation in the garment industry. The NSSF has it head office in Phnom Penh and a branch in all provincial cities, except a newly divided province of Khbong Khmom. There are 9 divisions in the head office including administration, finance and accounting, IT, registration and contribution, benefits, inspection and legal affairs, internal auditing, policy and health care. Each division is working under the supervision of Executive Director and Deputy Directors and supported by 4 technical commissions (medical, dispute and complaint settlement, and road traffic and safety team for worker s prevention) and two working groups (prevention of mass fainting and IT). The scheme is operated under the direct supervision of a tripartite board members created in 2010 and a technical consultation team for social security scheme, created in 2011. Benefits Employment Injury (EI) benefits, as stated in Article 15 of the 2002 social security law, cover workplace accidents and work-related diseases, including road accidents during commutes between home and work. More specifically, the EI branch provides the following benefits: a) Medical care (in-kind) b) Nursing cash allowance c) Temporary disability allowance (income replacement benefit) d) Funeral (death) benefit e) Permanent disability benefit (pension) and caretaker benefit
f) Survivor benefit (pension) g) Rehabilitation benefit (in-kind) Financing Employers are generally made liable to cover the cost of work-related accidents and diseases, including the compensation of survivors in fatal cases. This is also the case in Cambodia, where the principle of employer liability is enshrined in the 1997 Labour Law. It is therefore natural that the financing of the NSSF employment injury branch falls onto employers. The fund is financed through wage-based contributions at the rate of 0.8 per cent of reported wages up to a ceiling of KHR one million per month. Expenditure By international comparison, the incidence rate of occupational accidents experienced so far is very low. This could be due to underreporting of accidents by employers. Larger factories operate on-site infirmaries staffed with a nurse or doctor, and it is suspected that minor injuries are treated on site and therefore not reported to the NSSF. During the early years of the scheme it was expected that reporting of accidents would improve over the next few years. However, 8 years after launch the incidence rate remains low, raising concerns about the effectiveness of claims procedures. Due to the low number of benefits disbursed so far, a sizable surplus was achieved since 2009 and reserves have been accumulated. Total reserves as at the end of 2015 amounted to about US$60 million. III. Recent Developments On the 1 st May, 2016, the NSSF launched its Social Health Insurance branch. The SHI is being gradually rolled out around the country, starting with 3 provinces in 2016. The expansion rate will follow the pace of the implementation of a new identification card, managed and issued internally by the NSSF. In addition, the NSSF has expressed its intention to launch its Pensions branch in 2017. To this end, the ILO is currently performing an actuarial review. Moreover, In June 2015, the Government established a Technical Working Group (TWG) to reform the social protection sector. Led by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the TWG has developed a Social Protection Policy Framework which, for the first time in Cambodia will bring together social insurance and social assistance under one umbrella. The Framework calls for important reforms across both areas and prioritizes the rationalization of benefits provided under the National Social Security Fund for Civil Servants (NSSFC). The NSSFC was established in 2008 to centralize the administration of social security benefits for civil servants and create a contributory and financially sustainable scheme. However, in practice the NSSFC never fulfilled its second objective, with a long list of benefits being paid to civil servants coming directly from the national budget without anycontributions from civil servants themselves. As the size of the public sector grows and wages continue to rise year to year, this system is putting growing pressure on the national accounts. Due to the urgency of this reform, the draft Framework foresees the extension of the NSSF s mandate to cover civil servants in what would come to be a National Insurance Fund (NIF). The details of this seeming merger between the NSSFC and NSSF have not been discussed, but given that the NSSF has to date only implemented a single branch relatively successfully, there is reason to be cautious about the pressure this considerable increase in its mandate and workload could put on its administrative structures. The integrity of the NSSF s tripartite structure also remains an open question.
IV. Objective of the survey Objective of the survey is to gauge the level knowledge and of satisfaction of employers, employees, service providers and benefit recipients regarding the services and level of benefits received through the Employment Injury Scheme administered by NSSF. 1- Sample size: Four target groups will be interviewed to ensure the consistency of the response: The four target groups are: I. Employers: These will be the administration staff in charge of the administrative work dealing with contributions, employee registration, accident reporting and other matters for the promotion of safety measures. The number of employers selected shall be minimum 180 from 3 industries; namely garment, hospitality and transport. The weight shall be 60: 20: 20. The geographical distribution where the employers are having their enterprises shall be shall also be the capital Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Svay Rieng and Sihanouk Ville. The distribution shall be 60: 20: 10:10. The employers shall be divided into large, medium and small. Small meaning those employing 8 to 30 employees, medium those from 31 to 100 employees and large being those with more than 101 employees. This means the employers selected will be as follows: Capital Penh: Phnom Siem Reap : Svay Rieng : Sihanouk Ville: Large (> 101) 68 28 14 14 (Industry: 40: 14: 14) (Ind: 16:6:6) (Ind: 8:3:3) (Ind: 8:3:3) Medium (31-100) 24 8 4 4 (Industry: 14: 5: 5) Ind: 4: 2:2 (Ind: 2:1:1) (Ind: 2:1:1) Small ( 8-30) 10 4 2 2 (Industry: 5: 3:2) Ind: 2: 1:1 (Ind: 1:1) (Ind: 1:1) Total: 102 40 20 20 II. III. Employees: Ten employees can be selected form the large employers, 6 from the medium sized enterprise and 2 from the small enterprise to answer a pre- prepared questionnaire during the morning or afternoon break. Accordingly, the total number of employees surveyed should be above 1,000. Benefit recipients: Ten recipients who receive long term pension for permanent disablement exceeding 50% loss of earnings capacity shall be interviewed face to face. Ten families receiving a monthly pension due to the death of an employee shall also be interviewed. Service providers and Union representatives: A total of 10 persons, two from the hospital, 2 from the bank and 6 union representatives shall be interviewed to gauge their responses on the system ad process adopted by the NSSF involving them. 2- The specific tasks: 3 main tasks are listed below:
Task 1: Carry out field preparation including: - develop a workplan - translate the questionnaires, from English into Khmer language, for workers, employers service providers for NSSF and beneficiaries. The questionnaire will be produced by an international consultant - recruitment and provide training to the enumerators - pilot testing and revise questionnaires where appropriate Task 2: Conducting the survey with workers, employers, hospitals and NSSF team based on the approval questionnaires: - logistical arrangement of the field survey - field survey in 4 geographic areas: Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, SvayRieng and Sihanouk Ville, based on the agreed sample size - cleaning and coding the questionnaires Task 3: Conducting data entry and cleaning: - data entry based on the agreed templates and software - data cleaning - Submission of final data to the international consultant for reviewing V. Outputs and deliverable The institute is expected to finish the work within 6 weeks from the date of signature of the contract. Product 1: Produce a work plan, finalize the questionnaires and complete task 1 of the filed preparation. Estimated 2 weeks of work. Product 2: Complete task 2 of the field work survey. Estimated 2 weeks of work Product 3: Complete data entry and cleaning. Estimated 2 weeks of work All deliverables will be in English and in compatible format. The collaborator should quote a lump sum for delivery, with lump-sum for the consultancy as necessary. VI. Time Frame: Starting date: April 2017 Ending date: June 2017 Working period: 6 weeks VII. Reporting and Monitoring The firm will send all products to the ILO Phnom Penh by March 15 th, 2017 at 12:00 Phnom Penh time, through the United Nations Global Marketplace portal.
- Ms. Betina Ramirez Lopez, ramirezlopez@ilo.org - Ms. Malika Ok, malika@ilo.org During the work, the collaborator is expected to consult closely with ILO team. The ILO Phnom Penh will provide on-going monitoring, dialogue and guidance to the work. VIII. Administrative support and reference materials The ILO Phnom Penh will provide administration arrangement throughout the contracted period, such as arranging the appropriate meetings and advising on logistical arrangements during field missions, as well as relevant reference materials. IX. Terms of payment The approximate budget for this activity is USD $25,000. - The first payment of 30% upon signature to cover the preparation for product 1 and 2 - The final payment of 70% upon submission of product 3 at the satisfaction of the ILO X. Quote Interested participants should submit a short technical and financial proposal by 15th March 2017, 12:00 Phnom Penh time through the United Nations Global Marketplace portal. The award of the contract will be based on a weighted two part appraisal: technical excellence (70%) and financial cost (30%). The amount quoted should cover all necessary costs and expenses in respect of the performance of the work.