'Put ministers in one minibus to cut costs'

Academic and consultant Are Wakowako has called on the Government to cut transport costs by putting ministers in a single minibus instead of using multiple official vehicles.

Speaking at the Dialogue Fiji Western Division National Budget Forum in Nadi on Saturday night, Mr Wakowako said taxpayers were unnecessarily paying the cost of ministers travelling in separate vehicles.

"In a recent engagement I saw about nine, ten big government Pajeros," Mr Wakowako said.

"Why don't you put them all in a minibus?"

He said each vehicle came with additional costs, including a driver, meal and country allowances, and fuel.

"Ten Pajeros is equal to ten drivers, ten allowances," he said. "Those are costs that need to be cut."

Responding, Finance Minister Esrom Immanuel said Fiji's driving habits made it difficult to reduce vehicle use.

"Fiji is a peculiar country. Even when we have fuel crisis, we still have a lot of cars on the road," he said, pointing to continued queues at fast-food outlets despite the crisis.

The comments come after revelations that 826 Government vehicle crashes between March 2023 and April 2026 cost $7.39 million in repairs and write-offs, including 86 leased vehicles that were written off.

Asked about the cost of the crashes and reports of drivers unnecessarily idling government vehicles, Mr Immanuel said most government vehicles were leased and insured, limiting the direct cost to taxpayers to the insurance excess.

"That should not be a case for us to be probably flexible on," he told this masthead.

"We take a hard stance on those drivers involved."

He said drivers found responsible for crashes faced disciplinary action and were being retrained to switch off vehicles when they were not in use.

"That should lessen now with the regular training of drivers as well," Mr Immanuel said.