Government's travel expenditure has trebled in a decade, according to budget statistics.

More than $7.4 million was set aside in this year's budget, $5 million more than the $2.2 million spent in 1998/99.

Figures show a steady increase in travel spending since the mid-1990s, with a sharp rise over the past two or three years.

It comes after Cabinet announced plans to reduce Ministers' travel costs as part of its controversial money-saving move which included the axing of its Royal Gazette adverts and newspaper subscriptions.

Government has made no commitment regarding the amount of money it intends to save on travel, but it has said last fiscal year it spent almost $800,000 on the print media, of which $42,000 was spent on newspaper subscriptions.

Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards, who describes the $42,000 out of a $1 billion budget as a drop in the bucket, said cutting back on travel now would be like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Premier Ewart Brown has refused to reveal Cabinet's methodology behind the cancelling of Gazette subscriptions and advertising. Critics, including some within the Progressive Labour Party, suggest the real reason is to try to destabilise this newspaper for political reasons.

Association of Bermuda International Companies executive director Richard Winchell also urged Government to control growth in travel and increase efficiency. Finance Minister Paula Cox said in a statement that each Ministry has an accounting officer to oversee its budget and that Ministries are keen to ensure they don't exceed their allocations. This newspaper's research was from budget books for the past 15 years.

A fair comparison could not be made with 1993/94 or 1994/95 because travel came under the category "Transport and Travel", while no travel figure was available for 1996/97. In 1995/96, under the United Bermuda Party Government, $1.9 million was spent on travel. Spending climbed steadily until it broke the $5 million barrier in 2006/07, before leaping to a revised total of $7.8 million last year. The estimated figure for 2008/09 slightly decreased to $7.4 million.

Mr. Richards told The Royal Gazette: "The numbers kind of speak for themselves. What's ludicrous is that they want to save $42,000 by not buying The Royal Gazette. This area of Government spending appears to be out of control."

Mr. Richards said he was surprised to see the statistics, explaining: "I knew it had gone up, but I didn't realise the extent.

"The data is revealing and the Government needs to show what we are getting for all this expenditure. The onus is on them to show why they had to spend this money."

Regarding the proposal to reduce travel spending, Mr. Richards said: "They're closing the door after the horse has bolted. This horse has long gone.

"These are huge expenses. You can cut back and it will still be way more than it used to be."

Mr. Winchell said: "International business fully supports increases in social services and education, and expenditure for seniors, our children and those in need. In the current financial climate, Bermuda should be strictly controlling expenditures at all levels, and commit to creating a surplus to reduce our reliance on debt. Instead, we seem to be seeing a situation where expenses are rising to meet income.

"We therefore urge Government to commit to control growth of travel. We believe much efficiency can be introduced in the public sector."

Ms Cox's statement said: "It is standard practice that individual Ministers and Ministries have oversight of their respective budgets. And each Ministry in essence has an accounting officer in place to oversee the allotment of that budget. The management and approval on any expenditure, whether it is official Government travel, technology advancements or salaries, is done at an individual Ministry level, and it must be noted that Ministries are keen to ensure that their expenditures do not exceed amounts allocated in their budget."

Political commentator Denis Pitcher questioned why Government was now so keen to cut back print advertising when it had allowed travel expenses to soar over the past decade.

"While our Government's sudden concern for fiscal responsibility with regards to its advertising budget is appreciated, one could easily wonder where their concern for the fiscal responsibility of other budgets has been over the last ten years," he said. "Indeed, simply by taking a handful of categories of Government expenditure one could quickly account for millions in increases in annual expenditure that could cause us to wonder whether or not we could use some of that same fiscal responsibility elsewhere.

"Why are we just targeting advertising when there are many places we can look at to help put money back into the pockets of everyday taxpayers?

"If we're worried about expenditure on advertising, shouldn't we be worried about Government travel? An increase of more than $5 million seems irrationally exuberant when comparing it to the likes of an $800,000 advertising budget."

Another commentator, Stuart Hayward, said: "It is difficult to imagine any possible increase in services or other benefit to the public that could justify a threefold increase in government expenditure on travel.

"An increase totalled over $5 million over eight years just doesn't fit in with good stewardship of the public's funds."

Announcing the plan to reduce travel expenses, a Cabinet statement in March said: "Government Ministers will exercise greater oversight and care concerning how taxpayers' money is spent on travel.

"This measure will ensure the taxpayer is truly benefiting when civil servants or other Government officials travel overseas for business purposes. This practice is also determined to eradicate any unnecessary travel."

Explaining the decision to axe Gazette advertising, the same statement said it was "not cost effective or penetrative enough to rely heavily on print advertising in an electronically advanced community".

The Premier has championed the electronic media and radio as Government's new preferred means of communication.

This is how much Government spent on travel over the past 13 years.

They are actual figures from Budget books, except for 2007/08, which is a revised figure as the actual figure is not yet available, and 2008/09, which is an estimate.

Travel figures for 1996/97 are unavailable.

2008/09: $7.436m

2007/08: $7.817m

2006/07: $5.570m

2005/06: $4.858m

2004/05: $4.629m

2003/04: $4.118m

2002/03: $3.680m

2001/02: $3.377m

2000/01: $3.011m

1999/00: $3.560m

1998/99: $2.246m

1997/98: $2.511m

1996/97: N/A

1995/96: $1.905m