• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Bacolod City government has allotted P30 million for the grant of the P20,000 one-time Service Recognition Incentive (SRI) to qualified employees this year.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod approved Dec. 18 on first, second, and third and final reading, under suspended rules, the request of Mayor Alfredo Benitez for the passage of an appropriation ordinance adopting and authorizing the grant of SRI.
The P30 million comes from personal services savings from unfilled vacant positions from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, and certified available for reversion by city budget officer Maria Imelda Williams, acting treasurer Jose Maria Gecosala, and acting accountant Jeremae Ann Ceriaco-Florentino.
The grant of the SRI is under Budget Circular No. 2024-7 dated Dec. 16, in recognition of the employees’ contributions to government’s objectives, targets, and deliverables.
The Department of Budget and Management said that qualified to receive the SRI are personnel occupying regular, contractual, or casual positions; and those still in government service as of Nov. 30, 2024, among others.
Those engaged without an employer-employee relationship and whose compensation are funded from non-personnel services appropriations/budgets are excluded from the grant of the SRI, the budget circular states.
These are consultants and experts engaged for a limited period to perform specific activities or services with expected outputs; laborers engaged through job contracts (pakyaw) and those paid on piecework basis; student-workers and apprentices; and individuals and groups whose services are engaged through job orders, contracts of service, or others similarly situated, it added.
Bacolod has more than 1,000 employees. | CGC
