The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released an additional P451.31 million for the special risk allowance (SRA) of eligible health workers, the agency said in a statement yesterday.
The DBM said the amount released is payment for the SRA of qualified public and private health care workers who are directly catering to or are in contact with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients from Dec. 20, 2020, to June 30, 2021.
Of the said amount, P407.08 million was charged from the contingent fund while P44.23 million was charged from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund under the 2021 General Appropriations Act, according to the budget agency.
The DBM said overall, it already released P8.23 billion which benefitted about 499,116 health care workers who each received an SRA not exceeding P5,000 per month for the covered period.
The SRA is an additional benefit received by health care workers, apart from the existing compensations as prescribed under the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers and the Department of Health (DOH)-DBM Joint Circular No. 1, series of 2016.
Administrative Order (AO) No. 42, series of 2021 authorizes the continued grant of the COVID-19 SRA to public and private health workers directly catering to or in contact with COVID-19 patients, during the state of national emergency.
According to the AO, the grant of the SRA shall be pro-rated based on the number of days that the frontline health workers physically report for work in a month.
All claims for the payment of the SRA to eligible health workers shall be validated by DOH, the AO stated. – Angela Celis
