Gaming commission executives’ six-figure salaries revealed
The three senior executives in charge of the Bermuda Gaming Commission earn almost $50,000 a month between them, The Royal Gazette can reveal.
The quango has released exact salary details for its chief executive, director of legal, and director of finance and human resources in response to a March 2023 public access to information request from the newspaper.
The disclosure shows that chief executive Charmaine Smith picks up $18,750 a month, or $225,000 a year.
Dwight Furbert, the director of finance and human resources, is on $15,417 a month ($185,004pa), and legal director Marvin Hanna is on $13,563 a month ($162,756pa).
The post of director of regulation no longer exists.
Ms Smith’s salary places her among the highest-paid public servants in the country, with the top grade of senior civil servants earning slightly more at $233,854 a year.
Her comensation compares with $203,897 a year for the Commissioner of Police and packages of $300,000+ for the CEO of the Bermuda Tourism Board and $500,000+ for the CEO of the Bermuda Hospitals Board, according to the most recent figures available.
The police commissioner is in charge of about 473 police officers, while the gaming commission was recently streamlined and has fewer than ten employees.
It was set up in 2015 and has cost the public purse more than $16 million since then. During that time, the betting-shop industry has disappeared and not a single casino has opened, leaving it with little to regulate, beyond Crown and Anchor and cruise ship gambling licences.
The Gazette’s Pati request asked for salary information for every senior executive within the commission, meaning commissioners, the chief executive and anyone else exercising managerial functions or maintaining accounts or other records, under the authority of the CEO.
A response in May last year showed that commission chair Cheryl-Ann Mapp was paid $1,833 for each monthly meeting of the regulatory body she attended.
Deputy chair Judith Hall-Bean received $1,500 and commissioners Jonathan Smith, Daniel Reece and Renée Webb received $1,250 per meeting.
For the executive posts, the commission shared only $50,000 and $25,000 salary bands, rather than precise salary amounts, a decision later upheld by Ms Mapp.
Ms Smith’s salary band was given as $175,000 to $225,000.
The Gazette appealed Ms Mapp’s decision to independent Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez, who previously ordered the BHB to release executive pay information in $10,000 salary bands. Her review of the gaming commission response is still going on.
On May 17, the BGC provided the specific salaries for the three senior executives. Last week, it also shared expenditure figures, showing that it spent $1.74 million in 2020, $1.69 million in 2021, and $2.5 million in 2022.
More than $16 million of taxpayer cash has been spent on the Bermuda Gaming Commission since it was formed less than a decade ago.
David Burt, the Premier and finance minister, gave a breakdown of the spending in March this year, after revealing that $9.7 million had been taken from the Government’s sinking fund to pay off a loan taken out by the commission.
He said: “In 2015-16, while under the former Government, the Bermuda Gaming Commission received a grant of $1.4 million, and the following year received $2.5 million.
“In April 2017, the former Government then provided the gaming commission with a $1.6 million interest-free loan.
“In July 2018, this Government increased the loan by a further $500,000, increasing it to $2.1 million.”
He added: “In January 2019, the Government signed a guarantee of $1.2 million in support of a Bermuda Gaming Commission overdraft facility. The overdraft was increased over time and in December 2022 stood at $9.8 million.
“In the first quarter of 2023, Butterfield Bank made the decision not to renew the credit facility and, in the intervening period, given the fallout of the banking crisis, the commission was unable to refinance.
“As the commission did not have the available funds, in June 2023, the Government repaid the Gaming Commission’s outstanding balance [of $9.7 million] in line with the terms of the guarantee.”
The amounts detailed by Mr Burt, plus the $800,000 grant given in the 2024-25 Budget, total $16.5 million.
The Royal Gazette asked the commission under public access to information for records of communications between the finance minister or ministry about increasing the government guarantee and the repayment of loans. The commission said no such records existed.
David Burt, the Premier and finance minister, revealed in his Budget statement in March that $9.7 million had been taken from the Government’s sinking fund to “repay the Bermuda Gaming Commission’s outstanding credit facility to a local bank, which the Government had guaranteed”.
He later told Parliament that Butterfield Bank had decided against extending a loan to the regulator, so the Government would provide it with an $800,000 grant in 2024-25.
Mr Burt said the commission had been “streamlined” as work to secure banking for casinos in Bermuda continued.
The Gazette’s Pati request also asked for the commission's annual reports, including financial statements, as only one, containing financials for the 19-month period from September 1, 2015, to March 31, 2017, had been presented to Parliament.
On September 29 last year, the annual reports for 2018, 2019 and 2020 and audited financial statements for 2018 and 2019 were tabled in the House of Assembly.
The ICO is reviewing the commission’s response regarding the annual reports and considering whether it was justified in redacting meeting minutes that it disclosed under Pati.
° See Related Media for the BGC’s May 17, 2024 Pati disclosure and for the annual reports and financial statements tabled in Parliament last September
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