The Department of Foreign Affairs is cutting off foreign travels as it looks for ways to replenish its already depleted passport revolving fund, reportedly “eaten up by travel allowances, insurance” and other expenses, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Thursday.
“I am cutting off foreign travels. There’s tons of money there. No more conference trips. There’s Zoom. (I) will get (Budget Secretary Wendel) Avisado to help me realign. I stopped building renovation and capital expenses. Government needs every peso for vaccination,” Locsin said in a tweet.
He said on Wednesday that the government’s “entire passport revolving fund is gone” and its arrears to the APO Production Unit, the country’s passport printing contractor, had reached P388 million.
“Our entire passport revolving fund is gone; and we are in arrears to APO P388 million for printing passport booklets; apparently the fund was eaten up by travel allowances (huh?), insurance, miscellany (what?),” he wrote in his tweet.