COA orders TUP to give 6 years’ worth of hazard pay to 8 health staff

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the Technological University of the Philippines (TUP) to pay six years’ worth of hazard pay to eight of its health staff amounting to almost P3 million. 

In a ruling issued on Friday, March 11, COA granted the petition for money claim worth P2,929,006.30 filed by TUP’s Medical and Dental Unit in May 2018, siding with their argument that they are considered public health workers (PHWs). 

According to the petition, TUP ceased paying the hazard pay in August 2012 citing budgetary constraints. 

It also based its decision to stop releasing hazard pay on a 2012 joint circular issued by the Department of Budget and Management and Department of Health which limited the definition of a public health worker, adding that a PHW must be “actually and principally engaged in health or health-related work.” 

The petitioners, however, said that previously received hazard pay up until 2011 based on a certification from DOH. They also used data from their office showing that they are regularly exposed to contagious and infectious diseases, even if they do not directly work in a hospital. 

The COA Commission Proper sided with the claimants, citing a pronouncement by the Supreme Court declaring those who do health-related work as PHW even if their employer-agency is not rendering health-related services. 

The claimants include Doctors Emmanuel Ruiz II, Emilie Kuizon, and Marissa Laureles and Lovella Dulce Valencia, Sherebim Aloner, Imelda Manabat, Jay-An Lopez, and Andrea Pascual. 

COA also ordered officials and staff of TUP in its Taguig City campus to refund cash incentives they received in 2013, amounting to P3.73 million. 

According to state auditors, the Board of Regents overstepped its limits of authority when they approved the payment of cash incentives of P30,000 to each official and employee. 

“Since the grant of cash incentives has no legal basis and its funding source was irregular, the transaction was properly disallowed,” COA said. – Rappler.com