Capitol assures no delay in hospital workers’ pay

The Cebu Provincial Accountant’s Office and other concerned department offices assured no delay in the release of salaries of medical personnel at the government-run hospitals in the province.

The Provincial Health Office revealed in a budget deliberation held in November last year that some of its contractual and job order personnel have not been receiving their pay for three months.

The health office attributed the delay in the processing of the salaries to the lack of supporting documents and ‘additional requirements’ set by the Human Resource Management Office,

But Provincial Accountant Marieto Ypil disclosed yesterday that the matter has already been “facilitated” and that there were no longer delays reported to his office.

He said he had also requested the PHO to just work on the documentation of its personnel and comply with the necessary requirements promptly.

He explained that speeding up the processing of the payment for the medical personnel, mostly hired under job-order (JO) arrangement, is usually hampered by lack of supporting documents, such as daily time records.

“There are also absences without supporting documents. Sa JO man gud ang basis sa pagbayad is actual services rendered, unlike sa casuals and regulars. So ini’g 15 (pay day), for example, di gyud na sila (medical personnel) kakobra dayon because they have to submit first their documents,” he told reporters.

He said that it usually takes seven days after the pay day before the salaries of the JO employees could be disbursed.

Provincial Budget Officer Danilo Rodas, though, made it clear that enough funds for the medical personnel remain in place.

The record of the budget office shows that an amount of P195 million was set aside by the PHO for personal services this year, higher than last year’s P174 million.

With this, Rodas said the province can even hire more medical personnel but most will be under JO arrangement only so as not to exceed the personal services (PS) limitation set by the law.

Section 325 of the Local Government Code provides that the total appropriations, whether annual or supplemental, for PS a third class LGU for a fiscal year should not exceed 45 percent of the total annual income “realized in the next preceding fiscal year.”

Meanwhile, Provincial Treasurer Manny Guial reported during a Provincial Information Office-organized “Kapistorya” forum yesterday that the provincial government had a total of P2.48 billion income in 2014, hitting beyond the target of only P2.40 billion. Ypil, on the other hand, divulged that the province earned P291 million surplus from its 2014 funds after it paid the payables and expenses incurred in the previous year, as well as the continuing appropriations last year.

Ypil said the province intended to utilize the surplus for the priority projects of Governor Hilario Davide III.