Kiribati officials to ride in cars worth nearly 650,000 US dollars at celebrations

[Stacey King]

RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL - Posted at 23:27 on 01 June, 2009 UTC

When Kiribati celebrates its 30th year of independence on July 12, the President and his 15 Cabinet Ministers will be riding in brand new cars that are costing the government nearly 650 thousand US dollars. Marao Maen of Tarawa Motors, the local agent for Toyota which won the tender for the new official cars, says the President will have a Toyota Aurion Prodigy while his ministers will each drive Toyota Camrys.

He says these are top Toyota brands with the Prodigy costing about 53 thousand US dollars, while the 15 Camrys will cost more than 600 thousand dollars. The Permanent Secretary in the President’s Office, Betarim Robuti, says the new fleet of vehicles will replace existing government cars that are about six years old and are now expensive to maintain.

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