UNDER fire former faith-based tourism organiser Andre Curtis this week failed to respond to fresh concerns over how he spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Last week Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown finally revealed that Mr. Curtis's company, Harvest Investments, was paid more than $374,000 by the Ministry of Tourism in 2007/08 to put on 12 religious events which were expected to pull in 2,200 visitors. Dr. Brown claimed that Mr. Curtis spent $208,089 organising the events - but was unable to explain how the remaining $137,000 given to Mr, Curtis, was spent by the businessman.

The Premier, who was responding to written questions from the Opposition United Bermuda Party after ducking the issue for more than a year, was also forced to acknowledge that the Faith-Based Tourism initiative had brought in less than 500 visitors.

This week the Mid-Ocean News repeatedly telephoned Mr. Curtis on both his private cell phone and at his company offices. For three consecutive days there was no response to calls to Mr. Curtis's cell phone. Whenever this newspaper called his office, we were told that Mr. Curtis was busy in meetings but would return our call. No response was ever received.

Yesterday afternoon the Mid-Ocean News put in yet another call to Mr. Curtis - but dialled from a public payphone rather than the newsdesk. Mr. Curtis picked up the call, but hung up as soon as he realised he was talking to this newspaper.

The Faith-based Tourism programme was launched in 2006 when Mr. Curtis was commissioned to put on six religious-themed events to attract tourists. It is understood that Mr. Curtis was paid $200,000 for that contract - half as a salary and half as a fund to pay for guest preachers and promotional material.

But the scheme became embroiled in controversy last year after United Bermuda Party MP Wayne Furbert suggested that the project was a front to enable Dr. Brown to pay off Mr. Curtis. Mr. Curtis has been Dr. Brown's constituency chairman for a number of years.

The Mid-Ocean News later revealed that, as well as receiving Government cash, Mr. Curtis had approached business bosses seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorship.

And last July this newspaper obtained company bank statements which showed that -despite receiving nearly $200,000 from Government in April 2007 - the bulk of those funds were paid into a private savings account held by Mr. Curtis or other companies that he owned.

This week Mr. Furbert said the Premier's answers only raised more questions.

He said he doubted that the venture had attracted as many as 482 visitors adding: "My number has gone from 100 tourists to less than 50. The people who have come have been the performers themselves. Bishop John Francis brought a large group with him - if you don't count them, I'm probably dow to ten people who came to see this faith-based programme."

Bishop Francis flew in from the UK last October to hold a service at the First Church of God. According to Dr. Brown, the event cost Mr. Curtis $70,000 to organise, although a spokesman for Bishop Francis confirmed that his organisation paid for the trip - and had yet to be reimbursed by Mr. Curtis. Another visiting preacher, Jamal Bryant, also claims he was not reimbursed for expenses he incurred coming to the island.

"We spent thousands of pounds to attend this event, bringing singers, musicians to Bermuda to support Bishop Francis whilst he was ministering.

"We were promised by the Faith Tourism Board and Mr. Andre Curtis, who was acting on their behalf and liaising with our offices, that we would be compensated for our expenditure, however, to this date we have not received any reimbursement.

"We believe that fellow Christians should operate in good faith and with integrity."

This week a Christian who attended the service given by Bishop Francis said that, while the church was full, the vasty majority of the congregation were Bermudians or residents rather than tourists.Auditor Larry Dennis has now confirmed that he will be carrying out a full investigation of the Faith-Based Tourism scheme later this year.