Because of liquidity problems, companies are increasingly failing to pay contributions to private pension funds, and hence to social security, and the number of Romanians who are going to have smaller pensions is rising month by month.

The number of Romanians for which employers do not pay contributions to private mandatory pensions every month has gone up almost every month, getting to almost 1.37 million at present, from 961,000 in May 2008, when this pension system was launched.

The sum that has not reached the accounts of employees who have joined these funds since May 2008 so far stands at 123 million euros, which means that the pension of those for whom employers do not make payments will be smaller.

At present, employers are required to transfer 2% of each employee's gross income to pension funds every month.

All that firms have to do is to submit statements regarding social security contributions to the National Pensions House (CNPAS), which then handles money transfers to the state budget and of a part to private pension funds.

Since many firms are experiencing liquidity problems, they are late in paying pension contributions.

Moreover, the number of unemployed people is rising each month, and those who do not receive any unemployment benefits do not make contributions to private pension funds.

"Pension funds are collecting less money and people should be interested in this, in their pension situation, and check whether contributions are made to their accounts. If no money is paid now, their pension will be hurt, and this is why employees have to make sure the firms they work for submit social security statements," states Simona Ditescu, CEO of BCR Pensii.

Since the pension system was launched until May 2008, between 7 and 11m euros have not transferred to private pension funds. At present, more than 28% of the al