During that time he made 32 trips in 27 months, an average of more than one more month. Eighteen of those trips were on a private jet which cost the government about $4.1 million. The cost of travelling on commercial flights was $1.2 million.
All this information was provided to Parliament by former Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira.
The former Prime Minister chartered a jet belonging to Guardian Holdings Limited at an average cost of US$3,000 an hour (TT$18,990), which was more tnan the total annual wage of a worker on the $9 an hour minimum wage paid during the Manning administration.
Manning's most expensive trip was his shuttle visit to several Caribbean Community countries to "sell" his plan for political integration between Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The jet leased for that trip cost $792,593.24.
The second most expensive trip was Manning’s visit to several Latin America nations in preparation for the Fifth Summit of the Americas. The cost of the private jet was leased at a cost of $754,859.57.
Manning also used a private jet to fly to the Bahamas for the Caricom summit. That price for the jet was $251,739.
Manning's most expensive trip on commercial airlines was the visit to Ethiopia, Tanzania and Jamaica. The price tag for that was $201,638.55. His least expensive travel cost $8,667.50 to St Vincent for a Caricom summit.
In addition, Manning's ministerial colleagues also had huge travel bills during the same period:
- Lenny Saith to Qatar ($128,000), India ($129,000), Singapore $178,000), Dubai ($121,000)
- Conrad Enill to Uganda ($173,000), London ($165,000) and Spain ($135,000)
- Tina Gronlund-Nunez to Nairobi ($118,000)
- Alicia Hospedales to New Zealand ($112,000)
- Joseph Ross to Germany ($115,000) and Malaysia ($102,000)
- Kenneth Valley to India and Korea ($175,000)
- Gary Hunt to Sri Lanka ($106,000)
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