EMPLOYERS and employees must expect to face several sanctions for failure to return multiple cash assistance from the government, an official from the Social Security System in Davao Region (SSS-Davao) said.
SSS-Davao information officer Greta Quayle announced that the agency will release the penalties to employers who made their workers receive all the cash subsidy from the government which are the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS), Social Amelioration Program (SAP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (Camp) of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole).
She said the employers might also face other sanctions from the DSWD on top of the sanctions from the SSS.
“Bawal kasi yan siya kasi isang source of funding lang tayo, yung Department of Finance (DOF) which is also the source of the Dole Camp. Dapat isa lang talaga (that is prohibited because the source of the fund for SBWS, SAP, and Camp all came from the DOF),” she said.
She explained that SBWS is only given to individuals in the formal sectors while SAP is intended for informal sector workers affected by the 2019 novel coronavirus (Covid-19).
She said the SSS will determine the penal sanctions after they finish the distribution of the SBWS’s second tranche and the conduct of a post-audit evaluation.
“Titingnan natin kung sino yung mga employers na nagdeclare na wala talaga silang Camp at wala din silang SAP. Kung meron duplication, ipapasauli talaga natin yung SBWS. Kung nakadawat na mo sa second tranche sa SBWS, unya naa na moy SAP, pwede pili mo unsa ang inyong iuli (After the payment, we will audit employers who declared that they have not received Camp and Sap. If there is duplication, we will ask them to return SBWS. If they have received the second tranche, the employers may return either of the cash assistance),” she said.
She emphasized that they will run after employers since they are the ones who submitted the names of their workers.
“Si employer man gud ang nag encode so giexpect nato nga siguro ang mga declarations, gikuha niya sa iyang empleyado. Ang employer nga nagdeclare nga wala silay nadawat nga SAP o Dole Camp. Wala siya nag himo-himo (We expect that the employer knows what their workers have already received)” she said.
She said employers will now wait for the result of the post-audit verification since their chance to return SBWS ended on Friday, July 26, 2020.
Earlier, the DSWD-Davao bared that about 10 percent of the total beneficiaries were given SAP despite being unqualified for the cash subsidy.
DSWD-Davao Regional Director Grace Subong reported that 1,187 beneficiaries out of more than 29,000 beneficiaries in Agdao and Paquibato districts received multiple cash assistance based on their initial validation.
She added that the returned cash will be distributed to the left-out families in the region.