Six chief executive officers and six department heads in the Fiji government have been penalised for spending more than their budgets in the 2003 financial year.
The Fiji Times reports that all twelve have been surcharged by the Ministry of Finance which will collect a total of over 41-thousand US dollars from them.
The chief executives penalised include those for education, works, health, agriculture, justice and the sacked former chief of the finance ministry, Tevita Banuve.
One of the department heads penalised is the military commander, Commodore Bainimarama.
But he says it is a political ploy by people in the government to remove him from office.
The penalties have been imposed under the new Finance Management Act passed by parliament last year.
