Government ministers spent more than $630,000 of the taxpayers? money on travel in a single year, parliamentary questions have revealed.

Opposition Finance spokeswoman Pat Gordon-Pamplin hit out at the $77,000 racked up on daily expenses on top of meal, air ticket and hotel bills.

She said: ?What stands out is the apparent misuse of per diems, which total $73,355, which one would expect would be used for incidentals ? but food, transport and miscellaneous costs of $36,000 have been charged to the travel account in addition to per diems.

?What seems painful for the public to swallow is the amount of that Ministers are receiving at the expense of the public purse, especially in the face of the mammoth salary increases they have just voted for themselves.?

The analysis shows a further $326,000 in airfare and $198,000 in hotels bills the public has been forced to paid for, said Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin. The questions revealed Premier Alex Scott took eight trips costing the taxpayer $132,180 while Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton is king of the jet-setting Ministers, racking up costs of $137,316 for his ten trips.

Included on Mr. Horton?s busy travel itinerary were three trips to the States meet Sgt. De Lacy Davis about anti-gang initiatives, visits to the UK to look at electronic tagging of inmates, a visit to Washington DC for an employment summit and to look at speed cameras and two trips to Geneva for International Labour Organisation (ILO) summits.

He also attended a conference in Miami, a Bermuda regiment camp in Jamaica and talks with the US Government in Washington.

However Mr. Horton?s expenses were distorted by the fact that two trips to ILO conferences fell within the timeframe under the questions ? June 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006. Government picked up the tab on both occasions for a entourage of union and business leaders.

The Premier was also on the Jamaica and Washington trips with Mr. Horton and attended conferences in Antigua and the Caymans.

Mr. Scott attended a CARICOM meeting in Miami and St. Lucia (which was classified as one trip), the World Economic Leaders Conference in New York, and the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) conference in Hawaii.

Also adding up the air miles was Tourism and Transport Minister Ewart Brown who spent $125,118 on 21 trips ? making him Government?s most frequent flyer. Unsurprisingly many of the trips were for meetings with airlines and for tourism conferences.

Finance Minister Paula Cox spent $82,255 on trips. They were to the Caribbean Postal Union Conference in Trinidad and Tobago, to Switzerland to meet tax officials, to Washington to sign a tax agreement with Australia, to the RIMS conference in Hawaii and to Washington to meet senior US politicians.

Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield spent $71,872 on six trips, often travelling with a large entourage.

Four were for agricultural shows in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Cayman Islands. She also went to a slave memorial ceremony in Virginia and to the swearing in ceremony for the Jamaican Prime Minister.

Community Affairs and Sports Minister Dale Butler took three trips ? one to Cuba on his own in October 2005 costing $4,192, one to New York in January this year with two staff costing $8,277 and one to Australia for the Commonwealth Games with one staff member costing $33,437.

The total bill for the three trips, including staff, was $45,908.

Telecommunications Minister Michael Scott took three unspecified trips, two of them unaccompanied, costing the taxpayer $15,043.

Education Minister Terry Lister gave a full response about his three trips which cost $12,166. Two trips were for educational conferences in the Bahamas and Trinidad while the third was to Canada for the graduation of 18 Bermudian students from CompuCollege in Halifax.

Health Minister Patrice Minors took just one trip ? accompanied by her Permanent Secretary and the Chief Medical Officer ? to an Avian ?flu conference at a total cost of $5,840.

National Drug Control Minister Wayne Perinchief took one unspecified trip, with a staff member, costing a total of $5,616.

Yet to be revealed are the trips undertaken by Government Ministers sitting in the Senate.

Ms Gordon-Pamplin added: ?Parliamentary questions are the only means by which Ministers are held accountable to Parliament for their spending and the responses to such questions allow the Opposition not only to scrutinise the expenditure, but also to share this information with the public.?

Earlier this year it was revealed Ministers spent $155,464 using Government credit cards over a 21-month period from April 1, 2004 to December 31, 2005 while another $77,610 was paid out in per diem travel expenses.