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Mess in the bills for Kofod's private plane: 'Absolutely wild arrogance towards the taxpayers' | BT Politik - www.bt.dk »It is disrespectful handling of citizens' money.« This is how it sounds now from the Danish People's Party's group chairman, Peter Skaarup, after B.T. has been able to reveal how for two years there have been errors in the settlements for the private planes that Jeppe Kofod has used in his time as Minister of Foreign Affairs. An error that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself estimates has cost DKK 567,591. 'This is simply too bad of the ministry and the minister. You have a duty to take care of the taxpayers' money, and this case is not exactly an expression of that, "says Peter Skaarup. Among other things, Jeppe Kofod spent DKK 105,672 on a private plane to Brussels in November 2019. This is one of the trips that could have been paid for by the EU, but which is now financed by the Danish taxpayers. 'When the EU can obviously afford to pay for the minister's travel by private plane, the ministry must make sure that it is in order. I intend to raise the matter with the government so that we can be sure that this kind of waste of money will be stopped, "says Peter Skaarup. What exactly do you want an answer to - the ministry has acknowledged the mistake and wants to correct it? »How can this happen at all. And why they have not been reimbursed for these many private planes, which they obviously think it is necessary for the Foreign Minister to use. The least you could do was to get the money refunded to the Danish state. ”Peter Skaarup generally believes that Jeppe Kofod's consumption of private jets sends a bad signal. “It is a completely wild arrogance towards the taxpayers. One is that you choose to use expensive private planes, but when you even have the opportunity to get some of the money back home, it seems as if you are quite indifferent to the Danes' money when you do not get it done. It's some arrogant waste, he says. He stresses that it is not in itself a problem for a foreign minister to fly a lot. »The problem is the many private planes, because there are lots of scheduled flights to, for example, Brussels, you can take. And then it is hypocritical that a government that goes and says it is something so climate-conscious and green, contributes to completely unnecessary CO emissions, "says Peter Skaarup. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs writes in an email that it is "deeply regrettable" that no refund has been requested from the EU for private flights. “It is not good enough, it is no longer. As we have already announced, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has therefore also established new procedures to ensure that you do not make similar mistakes when applying for reimbursement again, "says Erik Brøgger Rasmussen, director of organization in the ministry. The Ministry further writes that the Minister of Foreign Affairs must in principle fly with commercial scheduled aircraft. In the extraordinary cases where it is not possible to fly commercially, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is investigating whether the trip can be completed with a chartered aircraft, the email reads. SPORT International Star Wars day People shout Save 40 percent charge See Transfer window LIVE Media Berlingske Berlingske Media A / S Pilestræde 34 DK-1147 Copenhagen KTlf. +45 33 75 75 33 CVR.no .: 29 20 73 13