The foreign minister said Manning made 40 trips during that period and provided a detailed breakdown for the benefit of MPs.
Rambachan was responding to PNM critics who have complained about Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's travel.
In one trip, Rambachan said the government had to pay $754,860 for a private jet for an eight-member delegation that Manning led to Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico. That amounted to almost $100,000 per person for the trip in 2009, Rambachan said.
The minister said there was a lot of talk on the issue of the chartering of a Caribbean Airlines flight to Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro for Persad-Bissessar's most recent trip.
He gave details of the expenditure on that, noting that the charter cost $547,322. The Trinidad and Tobago Government's paid $232,196 and the private sector paid $312,284.
"It is interesting that our friends on the other side tried to make much about this charter. However, it is instructive to examine some of the costs incurred by the former prime minister and Member of San Fernando East during the period 2007-2009," Rambachan said.
Rambachan said in 2007 Manning made 13 trips including visits to Ethopia, Tanzania, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Belize, USA, Barbados, Cuba, and Uganda. A number of these trips were made using private jets.
See breakdown in table below (click on image to see figures in larger window):
No comments:
Post a Comment