Spending figures released by gaming commission
The Bermuda Gaming Commission spent almost half a million dollars on consultants in less than 2½ years, according to figures that the quango was ordered to make public.
The regulator was told by the Information Commissioner to release a breakdown of its spending for 2020, 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 in response to a public access to information request from The Royal Gazette.
The new disclosure shows the BGC spent $289,793 on consultants in fiscal year 2020, $140,475 in 2021, and $13,665 in Q1 of 2022, totalling $443,933.
In addition, there were professional fees of $91,873 and legal fees of $17,435 for the same 27-month time frame.
The BGC revealed that it spent $1.7 million each year in 2020 and 2021, and $488,175 in Q1 2022. An earlier disclosure showed total annual spending of $2.5 million in 2022.
The biggest outlay was on salaries: $806,249 in 2020, $1 million in 2021, and $323,800 in Q1 2022, totalling almost $2.2 million.
Board member fees and expenses cost $95,959 in 2020, $82,946 in 2021 and $13,499 in Q1 2022.
The quango also had bank fees and charges of $132,108 in 2020, $194,967 in 2021 and $77,173 in Q1 2022.
The BGC has cost taxpayers more than $16 million since its launch almost a decade ago, by way of interest-free loans, grants and a multimillion-dollar guarantee to Butterfield Bank, which had to be paid off in June last year.
The Gazette made a Pati request in March 2023 for various records, including annual reports with financial statements for the five fiscal years between April 2017 and March 2022, in order to report on how the quango was spending its public funding.
In July this year, Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez found the commission was justified in refusing to release its final annual reports and audited financial statements for 2020, 2021 and 2022 because they only existed in draft form.
However, she ordered it to disclose its quarterly expenditures in accordance with section 6(5) of the Pati Act.
In September, the commission shared overall quarterly expenditure figures but Ms Gutierrez said that was not in compliance with her decision and issued an enforcement letter. A more detailed breakdown was then provided on October 10.
The Gazette asked BGC chief executive Charmaine Smith for further information on the consultants and professional and legal fees, but none was received by press time.
The newspaper previously reported that the commission spent $160,000 in the second half of 2019 on consultants, largely to tackle problems with finding a bank in Bermuda with a correspondent bank overseas willing to accept casino-generated deposits.
Julie Grant, then the commission’s chief financial officer, said the money reflected the commission’s work with Bermudian-based Rose Investment.
In September this year, the BGC rejected a separate Pati request from the Gazette for all records concerning Rose Investment and its CEO Everard Barclay Simmons, and all communications between the commission and Bermuda Banking Association, plus records and minutes of meetings with the association.
BGC’s information officer wrote: “ … the commission is currently undergoing a deliberative process and the information requested consist[s] of information which, if disclosed, may undermine the ability of the commission to ensure that stakeholders are able to engage in free and frank discussions.
“Further the disclosure of the requested information may adversely affect the commission’s plans going forward.”
The Pati request also asked for all communications concerning the advice the commission’s chairwoman Cheryl-Ann Mapp said in 2018 it was seeking from its counterparts abroad on alternatives to local banks for casino transactions.
The information officer wrote that the commission had searched its internal records and not identified any such records.
Butterfield Bank withdrew its line of credit to the commission last year and the Government used $9.7 million from the Sinking Fund to repay the debt, before David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance, allocated the BGC $800,000 in his 2024-25 Budget.
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