Darwin travel agent Sandra Lew Fatt says NT Government’s plan to move travel booking interstate will force local agencies out of business

A LOCAL travel agent says she’ll be run out of business by the travel scandal, after the Government announced it would no longer book travel locally.

Sandra Lew Fatt in her Darwin-based Sandra Lew Fatt & Associates Travelworld offices.

A LOCAL travel agent says she will be run out of business by the growing travel scandal, after the Government officially announced yesterday that it would no longer be booking travel through local agencies.

The announcement comes on the heels of a police investigation and internal review into certain aspects of government travel.

Sandra Lew Fatt, who has operated in Darwin for 45 years, said she was suspicious of the Government’s motives for moving to a new interstate travel booking system.

She said she would now be forced to close her doors, despite the fact she has done nothing wrong.

READ: NT POLICE BOOKED MORE THAN $50K WORTH OF TRAVEL

“I don’t see why we — the travel agents who are still here, still in business at the moment — have to be punished for the sins that aren’t even ours,” Ms Lew Fatt said on Tuesday.

She said that 95 per cent of her revenue was from government bookings.

The new booking system was first trialled in June 2014 through corporate travel companies Qantas Business Travel and FCM Travel Solutions.

Ms Lew Fatt said she then became aware that the Government was switching the way it booked travel.

“I said ‘something is wrong here, something is funny’.”

She also questioned the Government’s internal review into travel bookings from June 2014 to June 2015.

“Of course they’re not going find anything between June 2014 and now,” Ms Lew Fatt said. “Go back a couple of years and see who’s been doing what.

“My door is open for anyone who wants to audit me.”

READ: TRAVEL RORT INQUIRY CRIPPLED

Chief Minister Adam Giles announced the full shift to the booking system in Parliament on Tuesday, effective July 1, citing cost efficiencies and better accountability.

The Government has never said it was suspicious of any local travel agency bookings for travel, however, NT Police is currently investigating an “anomaly” the department made through a booking with Xana Kamitsis-owned Latitude Travel.

Labor leader Michael Gunner called Ms Lew Fatt and other local agents the “victim(s) of the CLP travel scandal”.

“We have significant concerns about what the CLP knew and when the CLP knew it,” he said.

“We have not got all the answers from the CLP.”

Ms Kamitsis is facing charges over allegations she rorted more than $100,000 from a government-run pensioners travel scheme.

Her lawyers have said she will fight the charges in court.