Mentioned By Jokowi In The Meeting, Minister Of Home Affairs Tito Asks The Regional Government To Speed Up Incentives For Healthcare Workers

Home Minister Tito Karnavian (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian asked the local government (Pemda) to accelerate the realization of the distribution of incentives for regional health workers (Inakesda).

Tito said, the acceleration of the realization was carried out in order to carry out the direction of President Joko Widodo who received information that there were still health workers who had not received incentives, either full, partly or completely.

"The directive from the President in yesterday's meeting (limited meeting) is to immediately realize incentives for health workers," said Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian in a statement in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Tuesday, June 29.

The directive was also followed up with the issuance of the Decree of the Minister of Health Number HK.01.07/Menkes/4239 of 2021, which regulates the mechanism and amount of incentives for health workers.

Meanwhile, incentives for health workers who provide COVID-19 services are paid by the Ministry of Health consisting of health workers at Central, Private, TNI, Polri and BUMN General Hospitals.

Meanwhile, health workers who work in provincial, district, city hospitals, health centers and health laboratories are paid by the local government through an allocation of 8 percent of the DAU and DBH in each region.

In addition, this directive was also followed up with the issuance of Ministry of Finance Regulation (PMK) Number 17/PMK.07/2021 regarding the management of transfers to regions and village funds for the 2021 fiscal year in order to support the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts.

Then, Regulation of the Minister of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration (Permendes) Number 13 of 2020 concerning Priorities for the Use of Village Funds in 2021.

Not only that, this was also responded to by the issuance of Circular Letter (SE) of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 440/3687/SJ concerning the acceleration of the implementation of regional budgets and expenditures for handling the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerating economic recovery, which was set for June 28, 2021.

The SE mandates that the regions provide funding support sourced from the general allocation fund (DAU) and profit sharing funds (DBH) of at least 8 percent.

"From the results of monitoring and also information, there are several regions that have not budgeted this 8 percent for COVID-19 (handling)," he said.

Then, continued Minister of Home Affairs Tito, there are those who have budgeted but the spending has not been maximized, there are also those who have allocated 8 percent of it but have not allocated for incentives for health workers.

"Some have allocated incentives for health workers but they have not been realized or have only been partially realized," said the Minister of Home Affairs.

Minister of Home Affairs Tito emphasized that health workers are at the forefront of handling COVID-19. The responsibility for the risk is very large, for that local governments need to immediately disburse incentives for health workers.

Simplification of the disbursement procedure must also be carried out without reducing the accountability aspect.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs will conduct periodic (weekly) monitoring, analysis and evaluation to monitor the progress of the realization of incentives for health workers in the regions," said Minister of Home Affairs Tito.