IF the Bermuda Housing Trust (BHT) imposed large increases on its elderly tenants because of maintenance costs, what exactly were those maintenance costs?

That's what Opposition MP John Barritt will be trying to find out from Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent in the House of Assembly today, as he awaits an answer to his parliamentary question.

Mr. DeVent has already indicated that he will not be able to answer the question because the BHT trustees had declined to release the information.

But Mr. Barritt wondered aloud whether the secrecy meant there was something to hide and added that if the BHT wanted to justify its rent increases, it should publish its financial statements through Parliament.

He added that Mr. DeVent was the Minister responsible for appointing the trustees and so they were accountable to him.

Yesterday the Trust issued a faxed statement through the Department of Communication & Information, saying its board would "make available any financial information to those persons or parties that are interested in assisting the Board in the carrying out of its mandate".

BHT chairman Ronald Simmons later clarified that those people would be potential donors or fund-raisers.

The statement also revealed that the details of the proposed new BHT development at Rockaway in Southampton would soon be revealed.

"Why are they refusing to answer the question on what they spent on maintenance?" Mr. Barritt asked yesterday. "Surely this is the Trust's whole case for the rent increases.

"And what better way to share the information than through the Minister responsible in the House of Assembly.

"If they wanted to dispel rumours, they would share the information. They have a duty to be accountable and I hope they will be big enough to do the right thing."

The Minister said in the House this week that Mr. Barritt's questions were "part of the Opposition's continuing attempts at a political witch-hunt on the issue of housing. I am aware that the trustees have taken offence to these political infringements."

Mr. Barritt denied politicising the issue and said he was asking the questions on behalf of those of his constituents who lived in the BHT's Purvis Park development in Devonshire. Some of those pensioners, on fixed incomes, have seen their rents more than double.

"If the BHT will share that information then I will be able to understand why they have raised the rent so much and then my constituents will be able to understand it too," Mr. Barritt said.

"At the moment, we're stumped as to how monies in the Trust that we know were close to $2 million have been spent, especially when you take into account what little maintenance has been done at Purvis Park. It just doesn't add up.

"Nobody's ever asked these questions of the Trust before, because the tenants have never been subjected to rent rises like this before."