The Fiji Labor Party has joined the Opposition Party’s criticism of the governments’ timing to reduce overseas travel allowances for Members of Parliament.

Leader Mahendra Chaudhry claims there were no legal hurdles, as claimed by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in Parliament yesterday.

Chaudhry says the Coalition Government obviously wanted to milk the system for as long as they could before acting on their promise to cut back on allowances and salaries.

Mahendra Chaudhry

The Former Prime Minister is questioning why these allowances were paid even when the host organisation or nation was paying for the accommodation and lodging expenses of Prime Minister Rabuka and other ministers and MPs when on official overseas visits.

He adds that the overseas travel allowance should not be paid, but the costs of any authorized incidental expenses may be claimed.

Meanwhile, Rabuka had stated earlier that the government’s MPs earned these allowances.