30 Oct 2008

French Polynesia's assembly to vote on Flosse expenditure

5:05 pm on 30 October 2008

The French Polynesian assembly is expected to decide tomorrow whether the veteran leader, Gaston Flosse, has to repay some of money spent when he was in power between 1996 to 2004.

The French accounts office says he and some of his supporters are liable to reimburse three million US dollars in public funds which it says was misspent under a system designed to deceive.

Mr Flosse insists that all money was spent on a range of people in the public interest and he hopes the assembly will now approve the expenditure.

The publisher of the Tahiti-Pacfique monthly, Alex du Prel, says those in the pro-independence camp led by Oscar Temaru had denounced the expenditure but have now become Mr Flosse's political allies.

"In case they vote these jobs have been in the public good to protect Mr Flosse, I think we'll have a real outcry because they would be denying everything they have said in the past 20 years."

Alex du Prel