NEARLY 10,000 regular employes at the Manila City Hall will usher in the New Year with a broad smile on their faces.
This, after Mayor Isko Moreno signed an ordinance allocating over P92.8 million for the grant of Service Recognition Incentive (SRI) of P10,000 to each of the city’s 9,282 regular personnel, pursuant to Administrative Order No. 37 issued on December 18, 2020 by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Moreno said it is the local government’s little way of recognizing the efforts, support and dedication of the city personnel to the jobs assigned to them, thus ensuring the success of the programs that he and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna as well as the other city officials have set forth.
The mayor acknowledged that no project of the city will be implemented properly without the hard work being put out by the employees themselves.
All Manilans, he said, also owe it to the city employes who work long hours and hard just to deliver basic services despite the pandemic.
Moreno also lauded and thanked the Manila City Council, headed by Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna and majority floorleader Atty. Joel Chua, for the swift passage of the said ordinance that will redound to the benefit of the city’s rank-and-file employes.
The sakd SRI will be released in January.
In granting the said incentive, Moreno cited the rationale behind the President’s order, thus: “Government employees deserve to be rewarded for their collective and unceasing participation in and invaluable contribution to the Administration’s continuing efforts toward the establishment of streamlined government processes and more responsive delivery of public services, especially in the midst of the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
According to Chua, the beneficiaries of the said ordinance are the regular employes under the category of Personnel Services, explaining that that job order (JO) personnel fall under General Services.
Chua also said that under Section 6 of AO No. 37 providing the guidelines, it was stated that the grant of the one-time SRI to employees in the local government units (LGUs), including those in the barangays, shall be determined by their respective sanggunians depending on the LGU’s financial capability. The incentive must be uniform and not to exceed P10,000, chargeable against the LGUs’ respective 2020 local government funds.
Should the identified funding source prove insufficient to cover the full amount of the SRI, a lower but uniform amount shall be paid to all qualified employees of the LGU, Chua said, citing the AO and adding that “in determining the amount of the SRI, the Sanggunians shall exercise prudence and judicious use of government funds, ensuring that the expenditure is reasonable and will not, in any way, adversely affect the delivery of services to the public.”
Section 336 of the Local Government Code provides that “funds shall be available exclusively for the specific purpose for which they have been appropriated and no ordinance shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriations from one item to another. However, the local chief executive or the presiding officer of the sanggunian concerned may, by ordinance, be authorized to augment any item in the approved annual budget for their respective offices from savings in other items within the same expense class of their respective appropriations.”
Chua said the SRI amounting to a total of P 92,820,000 shall be funded by augmenting the Special Activities Fund – Personal Service Account from Personal Service savings under the FY 2020 Annual Appropriations Ordinance. It will be given in January.
