The new French Polynesian government has decided to cut ministerial pays by ten percent to about 7,300 US dollars a month.
After its first weekly meeting since being chosen last week, the vice-president Nuihau Laurey said this cut would amount to savings of about three quarters of a million US dollars a year.
The government also announced that the President, Gaston Flosse, would forego half his pay, but a local newspaper says he was obliged to do that because he is already on the payroll of the French Senate, which limits the right to draw multiple salaries.
The use of government vehicles will also be restricted although it's not clear how much that will save.
Mr Flosse says a complaint will be lodged because on returning to the presidential palace, computers were missing from offices as were valuable books from the library.
