Eligible employees of the Department of Education (DepED) are expected to receive P15,000 each as Service Recognition Incentive (SRI) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022.
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte issued a memorandum dated Dec. 19 which contained the advisory on the grant of the FY 2022 SRI to the eligible personnel of DepEd.
DepED explained that Administrative Order (AO) No. authorized the grant of one-time SRI for SY 2022 at a uniform rate not exceeding P20,000 for each qualified employee of the national government.
In the memo, DepED said that the funding requirement of the purpose will be sourced from available FY 2022 released allotments for Personnel Services (PS) and may be “augmented” by available FY 2022 allotment for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) “subject to rules on modification allotment.”
Duterte has instructed DepED Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla to “process and release the SRI” not earlier than Dec. 20, 2022, but not later than Jan. 6, 2023.
DepED noted that once the funds for the purpose have been modified and made available by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the said incentive shall be paid “through cash to the qualified” DepEd officials and employees instead of the usual crediting to their respective ATM payroll accounts.
The disbursements, DepED said, should be made through Cash Advance (CA).
For the teachers and other school personnel, DepED said that the CAs can be drawn by DepED Schools Division Office (SDO) or Implementing Unit (IU) cashier or disbursing officer.
Related to this, DepED encouraged concerned officials and school heads to “strategize and start working on their pay out plans in order to avoid the building up of long lines / queuing in their respective areas.”
DepEd also assured that the “full amount of the incentive will be received by DepEd officials and employees” subject to existing budgeting, accounting, and auditing regulations.
In a Facebook post on Dec. 20, Sevilla said that the Sub-Allotment Release Order (Sub-ARO) from Central Office on PS savings would be issued on Dec. 21 to the field. The modification of MOOE 2022 for SRI, on the other hand, would also be submitted to the DBM for approval.
Sevilla said that the DepEd Central Office Finance will “process the request for modification to DBM and release of allotment and cash to the field” as soon as possible.
As of Dec. 21, Sevilla said that the 2022 SRI shall be covered by two sub-AROs to all regions.
The 1st sub-ARO, Sevilla said, will be released on Dec. 21 at P9,000 for every qualified employee and the final sub-ARO for the remaining P6,000 will be released after DepEd Central Office’s (CO) receipt of the SARO from the DBM as a response to its request for modification from MOOE to PS.