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'Travel agent' ministers splash out millions on foreign travel

Globe-trotting government ministers spent a whopping 2.16 million Euros on 310 trips abroad last year, the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZ�) said yesterday (Tues).

The Parliamentary Questions and Answers document released by BZ� also showed ministries spent 7.37 million Euros for travelling staff members.

The biggest spender was People�s Party (�VP) Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger who splashed out 577,763 Euros for 51 trips.

He was followed by �VP Finance Minister Josef Pr�ll, who spent 394,500 Euros on 41 trips and by Social Democratic (SP�) Chancellor Werner Faymann, who spent 257,000 Euros on 29 trips.

The minister who spent the least, 19,000 Euros on seven trips, was SP� Social Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer.

The ministry that spent the most on trips, 1.09 million Euros, was the Defense Ministry headed by the SP֒s Norbert Darabos, followed by the foreign ministry, with 1.04 million, and the finance ministry, with 1.01 million.

BZ� audit spokesman Gerald Grosz, who had asked for the information, said: "The government is its own travel agency."

At the same time that Faymann and Pr�ll were calling for higher taxes, he said, they were helping themselves to taxpayers� money.

Grosz acknowledged that international contacts were important but claimed savings were possible in the era of modern communication.

Austrian Times

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