Almost €36,000 was spent on a Mexico trip last year for Minister Owen Bonnici and two members of staff.
This information emerged on Tuesday in Parliament when PN MP Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici asked the minister for the number of times he attended meetings outside of the country in connection with ministerial work in 2022, for the people who accompanied him and the related costs.
One of the trips listed was for the UNESCO World Conference on Culture Policies and Sustainable Development - Mondiacult 2022, in Mexico. The dates for the trip were 26 September 2022 to 02 October 2022, and the delegates who attended were the minister, the permanent secretary, and one member of the secretariat staff. Although, the minister and one of the secretariat staff only attended between 26 September and 30 September.
The total cost of the flights were €32,790. Additionally the cost of the accommodation amounted to €3,201.88.
In total, Bonnici went on six trips outside of the country.
The first time the minister left the country was to Venice, Italy. A delegation had gone between 19 and 22 April for the opening of the Malta Stand in the Venice Biennale. The minister had attended from 21 April until 22 April.
Here the cost of the flight was €1,002.95, whilst the cost of accommodation was €1,661.
On the 16 of June Bonnici together with the same previous number of delegates headed to Naples Italy for an overnight trip. The cost of flights was €1,107, whilst accommodation amounted to €450.
The minister was to attend a Conference with other European culture ministers Culture of to discuss EU-southern partnership.
On the 12 of September, Bonnici together with an advisor went to Estonia to accompany President George Vella in a state visit.
For the three day stay, the accommodation amounted to €4,175 whilst the flights were €1,815.
In another overnight trip to Brussels in Belgium on 25 of October, the Minister was accompanied by a member of secretariat staff. In total the cost of flight for the Opening of an exhibiton by Maltese artists at the European Parliament regarding The Aftermath of War, amounted to €2,000, whilst the cost of accommodation billed up to €562.64.
The minister took his last trip on the 28 of November, where he was also accompanied by one member of secretariat staff for the overnight trip. Bonnici was attending the Council of the European Union Education, Youth, Culture and Sport, in Brussels, Belgium.
For this trip the flights costed €1,120 whilst the accommodation was €648.24.