Official spending figures on Government's controversial faith-based tourism programme have been chopped and changed.

Last week, Junior Tourism Minister Marc Bean released statistics showing five events in 2007/08 were more costly than Premier and Tourism Minster Ewart Brown had claimed last summer.

However, several other events the Premier had said cash was directed towards had disappeared from the list put forward by Sen. Bean.

In total, Sen. Bean said Harvest Investment Holdings spent $200,003 of taxpayers' money on seven events throughout the fiscal year; last June Dr. Brown had said $208,089 was spent on 12 events.

Last night, after The Royal Gazette brought the discrepancies to Government's attention, the Department of Tourism released a statement to clarify matters — and appeared to show the difference between the two lists was greater than first thought.

Tourism's release explained that last year's list — put out by the Premier when director Andre Curtis faced intense criticism for not setting up enough events with taxpayers' cash he'd received to run the project — had included two events which had in fact been cancelled.

The statement added that three events on Dr. Brown's list had been omitted in error from Sen. Bean's list.

When the cancelled events are removed from Dr. Brown's list, the total spending according to Dr. Brown goes down to $199,569. But when the erroneously omitted events are added to Sen. Bean's list, the total spending according to Sen. Bean goes up to $231,003.

Both were replying to Parliamentary Questions raised by the United Bermuda Party; Dr. Brown responding to Opposition Leader Kim Swan, and Sen. Bean to Opposition Senate Leader Michael Dunkley.

Harvest Investment Holdings boss Mr. Curtis, who ran faith-based tourism in 2007/08, has repeatedly faced criticism for his failure to account for hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars allocated to the project.

Mr. Curtis and Dr. Brown both deny former UBP MP Wayne Furbert's allegation that the venture was used as a means of getting cash to Mr. Curtis as a thank you gesture for running Dr. Brown's Progressive Labour Party constituency in the run-up to the 2007 General Election.

One of Mr. Curtis' events was the Second Annual Joint Worship at the National Stadium in October 2007.

Dr. Brown said that get-together cost $70,024, with Sen. Bean now saying it cost $83,894.

Bishop John Francis, from the UK, who was the star preacher at the National Stadium, yesterday ruled out any possibility that this hike was due to him finally getting paid the money he was owed.

Bishop Francis still claims to have been left out of pocket by Mr. Curtis' refusal to reimburse him for thousands of dollars spent bringing singers and musicians to Bermuda.

Asked whether Bishop Francis had been paid yet, his administrator Catherine Minott replied yesterday: "No. We're not expecting to get anything back. We'll be very surprised if we did."

Mystery event Weekend Fit For A King — which Mr. Curtis claims he helped organise in September 2007 but nobody has ever revealed where it took place despite numerous requests — also makes an appearance on Sen. Bean's list.

The Premier had said no cash was directed towards Weekend Fit For A King; Sen. Bean now says $1,963 was spent on it.

Weekend Fit For A King's venue remains unknown because under the 'location' column on Sen. Bean's list, it states: "Various locations." The Department of Tourism and the Premier's Press Secretary Glenn Jones did not respond to a request for more details about Weekend Fit For A King yesterday.

Last summer, Dr. Brown said Mr. Curtis' company was paid $345,250 to run faith-based tourism in 2007/08. Under the terms of his contract, he was expected to attract 2,200 visitors to the Island.

The Premier claimed 12 events organised by Mr. Curtis had brought 482 tourists. However, according to Dr. Brown's figures, that total plummets to 238 when events organised by other people, which Mr. Curtis spent no money on, are discounted.

Last night's Tourism statement said: "Previously the Premier provided responses that broke out how the total budget was allocated against all line items.

"In this regard, there were a few events that incurred expenses that were ultimately cancelled. These included Zachary Tims/Revival of the Land; and College Weeks For Christians; though it should be noted that records indicate that there were many enquiries for this particular event.

"Finally, there were a few events that were omitted in error from the Senator's response and these were the All-Star Celebrity Weekend. This event featured Yolanda Adams on the final night and the event produced 30 visitors. The Intercessory Prayer which was marketed locally only as value added; Joseph Jennings: Saving our Youth One Life at a Time. This event was geared toward the Youth and Joseph Jennings spoke at three sessions, and the event was marketed locally only as value added and four visitors attended; and the Mount Zion Faith Based Quiz which was marketed locally only as a value added."

The statement added: "It may be helpful for readers to note that the answers are different due to the Premier and the Senator being asked two different questions."

Mr. Swan had asked Dr. Brown to provide an itemised breakdown of how faith-based tourism funds were spent in 2007/08.

Sen. Dunkley had asked Sen. Bean to provide a detailed list of all promotional events supported in the past two years by the Department of Tourism and the total cost to Government. Sen. Bean included the amount spent on faith-based tourism events from 2007/08 in his list.