The Commission on Audit (CoA) has ordered the Social Security System (SSS) to refund P5.59 million to a contractor, ruling that the state pension fund had no legal basis to impose penalties for alleged delays in the national identification card project.

In a decision dated 5 March 2026, the CoA en banc partially granted a money claim filed by Allcard Plastics Philippines Inc. The commission found that the SSS “erroneously deducted” the amount as liquidated damages from the supplier of Unified Multi-Purpose Identification (UMID) cards.

The dispute stems from a contract originally bid out in 2015 to a joint venture between Allcard and Stradcom Corp. The SSS had withheld the funds citing alleged delays in the development and customization of UMID card chip applications.