The legality of the Wet Lease Agreement that was signed by the former Chief Executive Officer of Royal Tongan Airlines, Logan Appu, with the Royal Brunei Airlines on 25 November 2002 was questioned by 'Akilisi Pohiva in the Tongan Parliament on June 17.

The RTA Wet Lease issue was raised because of an increase in the allocation in the Minister of Finance's 2004-05 vote to pay government guaranteed loans.

When the Minister of Finance, Hon. Siosiua 'Utoikamanu told the House that there was an increase of $3.5 million in an allocation to repay government guaranteed loans in the coming financial year People Representatives then asked for more details on loans that are guaranteed by government.

In pursuing his query on the legality of the RTA Wet Lease Agreement with Royal Brunei, 'Akilisi said that the lease agreement was illegal, because it pre-empted the approval by the Privy Council on November 26 to guarantee a loan by RTA from the Tonga Telecommunications Corporation to pay for the leasing of the aircraft.

Hon. Siosiua 'Utoikamanu told the House that government guarantee for RTA was in 2000 with a $1 million loan from the Bank of Tonga to build a hangar at the airport. He said that the loan was later increased to $2.7 million, then it dropped to $2 million.

With regards to the guaranteed loan for the Wet Lease of the 757 Boeing aircraft from the Royal Air Brunei, he said that the guarantee was terminated when the Wet Lease was cancelled in June and was converted to a Dry Lease.

On the question on who will repay the RTA loan from TCC of about $1.6 to $2 the minister said government would either repay the total amount at once or would make an arrangement with TCC for installment repayments.

'Akilisi suggested for the Minister of Finance to hold the repayment of the loan for the Wet Lease, awaiting some clarification on the legality of the Wet Lease Agreement.