Abbott gets tough on travel costs Directive: Tony Abbott has issued new rules. The Prime Minister Tony Abbott has ordered cabinet ministers and top public servants to personally approve the airfares and hotel bookings of tens of thousands of bureaucrats as part of a crackdown on government travel costs. Fairfax Media has learnt that on November 18, Mr Abbott issued a directive designed to clamp down on official travel by federal public servants, domestically and overseas. He instructed all cabinet ministers to take personal responsibility for approving official travel by departmental officials, whether individuals or delegations, where the proposed cost exceeded $20,000. He directed that he must be consulted about any proposed travel, whether by an individual or a delegation, that exceeded $50,000. Mr Abbott decreed that all public servants' travel costing less than $20,000 must be approved by departmental secretaries or agency heads and responsibility "should not be delegated below that level." Coalition ministers, aides and senior public service executives have privately condemned the directive as "unworkable," "ridiculous" and showing "a complete ignorance of the practical realities of government." Mr Abbott has already clamped down on travel by Coalition MPs who are required to seek approval from his chief of staff Peta Credlin at least four weeks before overseas study trips or sponsored travel. It is long established practice that ministers must seek prime ministerial approval before going overseas. But Mr Abbott's directive on public service travel has already generated a backlash from ministers and bureaucrats. Senior government sources said the requirement that departmental and agency heads personally approve travel costing up to $20,000 was "simply unworkable." Does the Prime Minister really expect departmental secretaries to spend half their days signing off routine travel requisitions, even Cabcharge vouchers? Nor do ministers want to decide the composition of overseas delegations. It's nonsensical," one senior government adviser said. The government spends about $380 million a year on domestic travel and $170 million on international travel. Tens of thousands of public servants travel domestically or internationally each year. The lion's share of domestic travel is undertaken by the Defence Department and the Department of Human Services, which includes staff from Medicare and Centrelink offices. The Defence and the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolios account for the bulk of overseas travel. A senior Foreign Affairs and Trade executive highlighted the potential complications for diplomats overseas who travelled frequently, often at short notice. The directive followed the release of parliamentary travel expense reports which, among other things, showed former Labor foreign affairs minister Bob Carr spent an average of $4220 a day on international trips, domestic flights and chauffeured cars, totalling nearly $777,000 in six months. Fairfax Media understands Mr Abbott's directive was issued without consultation with departmental and agency heads. Coalition ministerial staff described the instructions as part of "the controlling tendencies of the Prime Minister's office." Labor finance spokesman Tony Burke said: "It's no wonder members of the Coalition are getting angry if this is the type of micro-management coming from the Prime Minister's office." A spokesman for Mr Abbott said he had "made it very clear from the outset that all travel was to be undertaken at a fair cost. It was strongly supported by his cabinet colleagues. The spokesman said there could be "exemptions for essential operational activities to meet government policy objectives." But the number of delegates, the travel class and accommodation would be considered carefully before approval. The departments of Finance and Deregulation, Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence would make no official comment.