Health Workers Incentive Is Ready, DPR Leadership: No Deductions!

Aziz Syamsuddin (BETWEEN)

JAKARTA - Deputy Speaker of the DPR, Azis Syamsuddin, reminded that arrears in incentive payments for health workers at the central and regional levels should not be repeated.

According to him, the convoluted administrative process must be immediately trimmed, including an audit which takes a relatively long time.

"We really hope that the incentives for health workers are prioritized. There should be no more administrative reasons. So the process will take a long time. Please don't be late," said Azis Syamsuddin, Friday, March 26.

Azis emphasized that the incentives provided were an appreciation of the hard work of health workers to maintain the enthusiasm of health workers as the frontline in handling the Corona Virus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Therefore, the DPR asked the government to be more lenient and simplify the administrative process for health workers' incentive funds, especially in the audit process of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP). So that the incentive funds amounting to Rp.3.39 trillion quickly reach those who are entitled to receive them.

"This coordination is under the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes). Communicate with the Regional Government (Pemda), the Health Office (Dinkes), and hospitals to speed up the process of distributing incentives," said the Golkar politician.

The DPR leadership also reminded the Ministry of Health to ensure that the distribution of incentives is right on target and supervise the distribution of incentives carried out by the Regional Government and the Health Office. So, said Azis, there was no one-sided deduction from the incentives for health workers.

"Do not let any cuts. Please serve as a warning, so that similar cases do not occur. Respect the rights of fellow health workers," said Azis.

Azis suggested that complaints submitted by the association of health workers in Indonesia related to health workers who had not received incentives should also be followed up.

"Pak Wamenkes Dante Saksono has said that the incentives for health workers already exist and they just have to distribute them. Hopefully the audit process of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) will be completed soon," he explained.

In the future, he continued, the DPR also asked for the audit process to be completed so there would be no delays like this. Azis hopes that the incentive scheme will change the regulations in 2021 so that the bureaucracy is not too long.

"In my opinion, reconcile again with various kinds of regulations. And in the future it is also necessary to apply incentives with a gradation pattern. Especially health workers who directly come into contact with COVID-19 patients," he said.

According to Azis, the government, through the National Economic Recovery Program (PEN) fund, has budgeted Rp. 176.3 trillion in 2021, higher than Rp. 63.5 trillion in 2020, for health management and mitigation of the impact of COVID-19.

The budgets that are in the central government spending ceiling as well as transfers to these regions are used for testing and tracing, maintenance costs, incentives for health workers, vaccination and communication programs.

"From the data we received, until March 17, 2021, the realization of the health expenditure for the PEN program had only reached Rp. 12.4 trillion or 7 percent of the Rp. 176.3 trillion ceiling. The DPR hopes that this government's move will reap maximum results, of course with encouragement from the local government all parties. For the sake of economic recovery and public health, "said Azis Syamsuddin.