The Tribune

THE Progressive Liberal Party released a copy of a $24,000 cheque to the Public Treasury it said reflected payment from the organisation for Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis’s recent trip to Bermuda.

The FirstCaribbean International Bank cheque is dated October 21, 2022 in the amount of $24,750.

This comes amid controversy and after calls from the official opposition for the government to be transparent and reveal the documentation that shows who paid for the October 19 trip. Mr Davis left Bermuda on October 20.

In a brief statement issued last night, the PLP said it wanted to make the payment public and added that it will “continue to share records of the reconciliation of any additional associated costs and payments.”

 Communications Director in the Office of the Prime Minister Latrae Rahming said Friday the travel costs were covered by the Progressive Liberal Party, adding any further questions should be directed there.

 However, on the weekend Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said the trip was a standard official visit to another country at the invitation of the Premier of Bermuda E David Burt, who is also leader of Bermuda’s Progressive Labour Party.

 “The standard procedure is for most, if not all, flights of the prime minister to be arranged through the Office of the Prime Minister,” Mr Mitchell said.

 “When settlement of expenses are done, there is a reckoning as between personal expenses and public expenses. That procedure was followed in this case and there is nothing unusual about it.”

 This week, Free National Movement Leader Michael Pintard highlighted the “conflict” in the two men’s statements on the trip and called for transparency.

 Yesterday, FNM Chairman Dr Duane Sands also waded into the debate and said the details around the trip were “smudgy”.

 He released a voice note on the issue before the PLP’s statement was issued.

 Dr Sands said: “Was it a government trip or a PLP political trip? Or both, or neither? It seems that the primary mission was to get mixed up in the internal political affairs of another country. And as the facts emerged, the Office of the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and others started explaining, except, yup the stories didn’t line up.

 “The PLP and the government have dug in, it seems, as the stories they have told can’t all be true so now the chairman of the PLP is saying they finish with that. No, sir, the Bahamian people aren’t finished yet, they want you to come clean for a change.”

 He said people want to know whether the large delegation “of ministers, civil servants and political hangers on” met with the opposition party in Bermuda as well as the governing party.

 He said people also need an explanation on why Mr Davis spoke at a partisan, political rally in Bermuda and questioned if he would be speaking next at a Republican rally in the US or a Labour Party event in the United Kingdom.