Government ministers have racked up more than $70,000 in travel expenses over the past three months, according to the latest figures.

Nine ministers have made a total of 12 overseas trips at a cost of $72,873 since September 9, according to the travel calendar page on the Government’s website.

The total could increase once all ministerial travel costs have been collated. David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance, has made at least three trips since September, but his expenses for that travel is not listed.

In the past three months, Walter Roban, the Deputy Premier and Minister of Home Affairs, has travelled to New York, Barbados, London and the United Arab Emirates, at a total cost of $35,110 — almost equalling the amount spent on travel by the other eight ministers combined.

According to the calendar, Mr Roban spent $11,330 attending a three-day meeting of the Joint Ministerial Council in London last month.

A total of $18,274 was spent on Mr Roban’s two-week trip to Dubai, where he attended the COP28 environment conference.

Expenses for that trip included $10,119 on air travel and almost $7,000 on accommodation. Mr Roban also spent $1,145 on meals during his stay, which wrapped up earlier this week.

Mr Roban accompanied Mr Burt on both of those visits, which the calendar refers to. But the calendar provides no details of any expenses incurred by Mr Burt during those two fact-finding missions.

Another trip made by Mr Burt that the calendar makes no reference to was his visit to Washington in September.

Mr Burt flew to the US capital on the day he announced that Government computer systems had been hacked.

He attended a breakfast for “Friends of Bermuda” while in Washington, but cut short his trip after just two days to deal with the cyberattack crisis back home.

The Royal Gazette earlier asked the Government for further information about that trip and was told that cost details would be provided “in the usual manner”.

To date, no information has been provided on the website calendar page.

Yesterday, a government spokeswoman confirmed that details of all the Premier’s overseas business trips will be provided at a later date.

The spokeswoman said: “The latest Washington DC trip is expected to be posted by the end of the week by the Cabinet Office.

“The missing items from the Ministry of Finance for the Premier are scheduled to be completed by the end of next week.

“Any other ministerial travel that has not been posted for this year should be uploaded by the end of the year, and we welcome the transparency and questions that may come from the media and members of the public.”

Diallo Rabain, the Minister of Education, took a one-week trip to Japan for a leadership conference at the cost of $9,585, and Owen Darrell, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, attended a Commonwealth Youth Ministers meeting in London, registering $7,506 of expenses.

The numbers were criticised by the One Bermuda Alliance during yesterday’s sitting of the Senate.

Douglas De Couto, the Shadow Minister of Economic Development, said the topic had “got me in a tizzy”.

Dr De Couto said: “I’ve been looking through the travel calendar, and I saw that the Deputy Premier had a $10,000 air fare to London.

“I wish I could get one of those for my business trips. Sometimes I do go out Club Class. I lie down and I get to go to work at 9am the day I arrive, but that’s not a $10,000 fare; that’s a $5,000 fare.

“I’m assuming that the Deputy Premier flew out there on first-class, so that was a little eye-opener for me.

“I would have thought that the purse strings were being held pretty tightly right now because there’s not a lot of money to go around, and I’m a little surprised at some of those numbers.

“I’ll give you that a certain amount of travel is, of course, required and must be done at the appropriate level so that the people who travel on behalf of the Bermudian people can achieve the best outcomes for the public, but some of this just looks highly excessive to me.”

Dr De Couto also noted that Mr Roban’s trip to Barbados — which came with a price tag of just $415 for the Bermudian taxpayer — was mostly funded by the Barbadian government.

He said: “I guess I would ask the question, is that something that ought to be declared on his interest form because it’s being paid for by another government?

“And that’s why we ask these questions. We ought to know where people are going, and if the Bermuda Government is not paying, who is paying? And if someone else is paying, why are they paying? What is the intent of that and what does that mean?

“I’m not saying there’s any ill-intent, but everyone ought to have the information required to make the appropriate assessment and judgment.

“My view is that there are members of this government who feel entitled to this travel.”

Yesterday, a government spokeswoman explained that the travel expenses disclosures were not up to date because administrative officers were busy.

The spokeswoman said: “The ministerial travel website will continue to be updated as it has been throughout the year.

“It should be noted that this is an administrative function, and as the public and media can understand, public officers have many tasks that need to be completed on any given day.

“Transparency is essential, but these tasks do add an administrative burden to those public officers who need to compile the information for publication.

“At the same time, these public officers deal with daily tasks in service to the public.

“It should be clear that travel expenses are not attempted to be concealed, as press releases for ministerial travel are often made, and by practice, ministerial expenses are transparently reported.

“Ministers must travel to represent Bermuda and conduct business overseas. The public should note that ministerial travel approved by the Premier always considers the necessity of the trip to ensure that Bermuda is adequately represented internationally where required.”