KUCHING: The Sarawak government’s RM300 Covid-19 allowance for medical frontliners has not been paid since May because the updated name list from the Sarawak Health Department has not been submitted to the government.
Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian said he was informed by the department that the name list had to be updated.
“The name list must come from the (Sarawak Health) department before we can pay. Otherwise if we keep paying according to the outdated name list since March, then many frontliners who are eligible from April onwards will miss out.
“It’s not that the Sarawak government has no money to pay but it’s because the name list of the medical frontliners is constantly changing,” he said when met by reporters after officiating at the handing over of vehicles and equipment to the State Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) at its headquarters at Jalan Setia Raja.
Dr Sim explained that it was not for the government to decide who were eligible for the allowance.
“The health department has over 20,000 staff and everybody can be a frontliner.
“But how do you define a frontliner? We will leave it to the agency to define, not the politicians.
“The frontliners can even be the cleaners in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH),” he said.
