Almost two years after it was first allocated, three MPs had failed to spend any of the $100,000 in constituency allowances made available to them in the 2008/2009 budget on a single upgrade or enhancement project in their communities - among them, former Prime Minister and MP for Farm Road and Centreville Perry Christie.

Neither MP for Bain and Grants Town, Dr Bernard Nottage, Mr Christie or MP for Mayaguana, Inagua, Crooked Island, Acklins and Long Cay (MICAL), Alfred Gray, had spent any of the total $300,000 provided in the 2008/2009 budget for projects in their constituencies by April 2010.

This is revealed in a report compiled by the Ministry of Finance in April 2010, just months before the end of the 2009/2010 budget cycle tomorrow, when the money will fail to roll over for another year as the Government cut backs in the face of revenue shortfalls.

Yesterday Mr Gray claimed that the figures did not reflect the truth of the matter in his case, as he had in fact spent the full $100,000 for the second year in his constituency. The 2007/2008 Ministry of Finance report on the expenditure of the constituency allowances shows that Mr Gray had successfully applied for just under $100,000 to be spent on the construction of the Acklins Community Centre in 2007 and the MP claimed that having sought to have the same amount spent on a Community Centre in Mayaguana from the following year's funds, he was told by the Ministry of Finance that they would prefer he use second $100,00 allocation to finish the project in Acklins. He said he agreed to this and the contract for the centre was signed in November 2009.

Messages left for Dr Nottage and Mr Christie were not returned.

In the case of Dr Nottage, former minister of health, the failure to allocate any of the funds in his constituency were a marked contrast from his actions in the previous year. The Ministry of Finance report shows that in 2007 and 2008 he spent a total of $82,489 out of the $100,000 available to him on donations of computers to schools and his constituency's computer lab and within that figure, $45,843 on donations to community groups.

However, this was not the case for Mr Christie, who only spent $31,000 of his first $100,000 allowance in 2007/2008. This was in the form of a donation to the Joe Billy Blind Blake Festival, according to Ministry of Finance records.

For this and the apparent lack of expenditure of the 2008/2009 allowance, Mr Christie, member of parliament for Farm Road and Centreville, achieved the dubious distinction of having spent the smallest percentage of the total $200,000 constituency allowance funds over the two year period of all MPs - at just 15 per cent.

Coming up behind him in the low-spending stakes in the PLP was former chairperson and MP for Englerston, Glenys Hanna Martin, who allocated $17,018 to her constituency in the form of an interactive white board for the EP Roberts School, ten computers for the community's computer training programme, two computer programme instructors and the summer basketball camp in the 2008/2009 period and up to April 2010. This was a significant reduction from the $99,519 she spent in the previous year on donations to schools, after school programmes, repairs to parks and park equipment, among other things.

Kendal Wright, MP for Clifton, was the lowest spending FNM MP, having just $1,298.45 of his $100,000 budget for 2008 and 2009 by April 2010. This was expended on the repair and construction of "entrance signs" in the constituency. In the previous year Mr Wright caused the expenditure of a much more significant $99,978.03 in his constituency. This include $28,445.03 on "entrance signs", 56,900 on the renovation of a local basketball court and $10,000 to community festivals.

Dr Hubert Minnis, minister of health and MP for Killarney, had up to the report period also spent a relatively small $19,800 (on the construction of a basketball court) in his constituency from the 2008/2009 allocation, while Kenyatta Gibson, MP for Kennedy, had found ways to spend $25,000 out of a possible $100,000 (in the form of a $10,000 donation to Unity House retirement home and $15,000 to Red Land Soldiers Junkanoo Group).

How the MPs did or did not spend the money available to them is only just coming to light as The Tribune has obtained a copy of a Ministry of Finance report on how all 41 MPs, PLP and FNM, made applications to spend the $200,000 available - $8.2 million in total for 41 MPs between 2007 and 2009 - in their constituencies. The Tribune first requested a breakdown of the MP's spending in June of 2009 from Minister of State for Finance, Zhivargo Laing and has made repeated requests for an official report on the matter ever since.

Individual requests from The Tribune to all MPs for an accounting of how they spent the funds was for all intents and purposes ignored in December of last year by the majority of members. 15 FNMs responded out of a total of 24, and only one PLP - Fred Mitchell - did so.

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