[Photo: FILE]

More than $354,000 was spent on overseas travel by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Foreign Affairs Minister Sakiasi Ditoka over 16 months.

Ditoka accounted for $212,733 of the total, spending $70,883.80 more than the Prime Minister, whose overseas travel costs reached $141,849.20.

Rabuka’s overseas engagements covered seven listed trips to Australia, India, Solomon Islands, Israel, the United States, Japan and Papua New Guinea.

His engagements included the opening of Fiji’s Embassy in Israel, the United Nations General Assembly, the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting and efforts to strengthen Fiji’s relationship with Japan.

The government paid $49,891 in airfares, $28,861 in accommodation and $8,906.34 in meals and incidental expenses for Rabuka’s combined Israel and United States visit.

Other trips were partly funded by foreign governments, including India, Australia, Solomon Islands and Japan, which covered various costs such as airfares, accommodation and meals.

Ditoka’s travel expenditure was $70,883.80 higher than the Prime Minister’s, with his 10 listed overseas engagements costing taxpayers $212,733.

His travel included Commonwealth Foreign Ministers’ meetings in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Belgium, the World Trade Organisation’s 14th Ministerial Conference in
Cameroon and several fuel-security engagements across Asia and Australia.

The Government spent $57,009.71 on Ditoka’s Commonwealth Foreign Ministers’ meetings and visits to Fiji’s overseas missions, while his Cameroon engagement cost another $53,166.94.

His fuel-security engagements also accounted for substantial expenditure, with $31,440.16 spent on travel involving Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Australia, and a further $32,323.71 on Fiji’s strategic engagement in Malaysia and South Korea.

Some of Ditoka’s overseas engagements received external support. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, for instance, covered economy-class airfares, accommodation and meals for his United Kingdom parliamentary delegation.

However, Fiji still paid $25,705 towards the business-class airfare component, alongside $9,356.93 in per diems and $150 in travel insurance.

The Government’s written response also identifies sponsorship from the Governments of Nauru, Australia and New Zealand for other engagements.

The figures are contained in PM’s response to a parliamentary question from Opposition Leader Inia Seruiratu, seeking details of overseas travel by the Prime Minister,
Ministers and Assistant Ministers over the 16-month period.

The response records 182 official overseas trips.