DBM, PAL ink deal on discounted domestic trips of gov’t workers
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Tuesday signed a deal with the Philippine Airlines (PAL) granting discount on official domestic trips of government employees.
The DBM’s Procurement Service-PhilGEPS (Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System), the government’s main procuring entity, signed a General Fares Agreement (GFA) on domestic airline travel for the initial 23 government agencies.
“Under the said agreement, all official domestic trips of government officials, employees and personnel will be given 8 percent discount for all economy class reservations, 10 percent discount for business class, additional baggage allowance, and waiver of processing fee worth P250 per ticket, and waiver of fees for first rebooking, among others,” the DBM said in a statement.
The DBM said an estimated P830.93 million will be saved by the government with the eight-percent discount on economy class travel, P519.38 million on the waiver of P250-processing fee.
The government has a P10.3-billion budget for domestic airline travel for 2016.
Citing a survey conducted in 2015, Procurement Service (PS) executive director Jose Tomas Syquia said airline tickets ranked as among the most commonly required item in procurement activities of government agencies.
“Our partnership with Philippine Airlines will greatly impact government transactions for domestic airline travel. As part of the government’s common requirement which we will aggregate, we can purchase domestic airline tickers faster and easier,” Syquia said.
“The roll-out plan for the ‘Domestic Air Travel as a Common Use’ program will start in May with training programs for the hands-on use and navigation of the PAL portal within the PS-PhilGEPS website. During the initial implementation, ticket purchases will be charged under the PS-PhilGEPS’ revolving fund, in coordination with the Landbank of the Philippines to take into account the existing credit lines of government agencies,” the DBM added. RAM
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