The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released additional funds to provide the delayed special risk allowance (SRA) for medical frontliners battling the pandemic.
In a statement, the budget department announced late Friday, Sept. 3, that an additional P888.12 million in SRA has been released for eligible public and private healthcare workers (HCWs).
According to the DBM, eligible HCWs are those who were “directly catering to or are in contact with COVID-19 patients” between December 20, 2020 and June 30, 2021.
DBM said the funding was charged from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund and Unprogrammed Appropriations under the FY 2021 General Appropriations Act.
"With this, the total additional funds released by the DBM for the SRA pursuant to Administrative Order No. 42 as of date have reached P1.2 billion,” the department said.
To recall, the DBM released last Aug. 25 about P311.79 million for the SRA of 20,208 public and private health workers.
“An additional amount of P407.08 million will be charged against the FY 2021 Contingent Fund to complete the SRAs for an estimated 117,926 HCWs,” DBM said.
President Duterte earlier ordered the DBM and the Department of Health (DOH) to release the SRA of healthcare workers.
The chief executive’s directive came after complaints from medical professional groups on the delayed release of the SRA.
According to the DBM, the health department shall facilitate the downloading of the funds to the DOH-retained hospitals, treatment and rehabilitation centers, private hospitals and other COVID-19 facilities.
“The grant of the COVID-19 SRA shall be pro-rated based on the number of days that the public and private health workers physically report for work in a month,” the department added.
“Rest assured that the DBM will facilitate the prompt release of the funds for the SRA to ensure that all eligible HCWs will receive their rightful benefits,” it added.