Today, for the first time, The Tribune can reveal how MPs chose to use $8.2 million in public funds within their constituencies.

This article, based on official Treasury records from the Ministry of Finance, follows several other articles in January of this year based on a verbal accounting of these expenditures from 16 MPs.

Fifteen FNMs and one PLP responded to a request to account for the funds from this newspaper in December 2009.

Now for the first time, The Tribune is able to further illuminate how all MPs spent the funds, with today's piece highlighting the expenditure of the $100,000 each member was allocated in the 2007/2008 budget year which ended July 1st 2008.

Tomorrow readers will be able to see a breakdown of the 2008/2009 expenditures, or lack thereof.

Ultimately each MP was able to access $100,000 per year in funding for discretionary projects in their constituency over three budget periods.

The money was initially allocated in the 2007/2008 budget year, which began on July 1, 2007, and again in the 2008/2009 budget year, which began on July 1, 2008. Leftover funds from those budgetary periods which had not been allocated by MPs rolled over into the 2009/2010 budget period, which ends today.

A number of MPs, including MP for Englerston Glenys Hanna Martin and former MP for Elizabeth, Malcolm Adderley, contacted The Tribune yesterday to claim that the Ministry of Finance report did not accurately reflect their usage of the funds.

Both MPs said they had used the majority of their $100,000 allocation in 2008/2009, rather than the $17,000 and $9,000 respectively which the report, compiled in April 2010, reflected.

See tomorrow's Tribune for more details on this.

2007/ 2008

Malcolm Adderley, Elizabeth, $99,285.63: Upgrade two parks ($86,604.60). Donation of furniture to the Elizabeth Estates Children Home ($3,861.03). Donation of computers ($8,820).

Desmond Bannister, Carmichael, $95,794: Upgrades to parks

Carl Bethel, Sea Breeze, $99,600: Construction of sea walls ($8,000), cleaning of street ($5,700), cleaning and clearing of properties ($22,100), clearing curbs and providing entrance signs ($50,480), beautification and landscaping of parks ($13,320).

Loretta Butler Turner, Montagu, $100,000: Road cleaning ($92,500), donation to the L.W. Young school ($2,500), donation to the Colours Junkanoo Group ($5,000).

Larry Cartwright, Long Island and Ragged Island, $100,000: Construction of toilet block, basketball court and street signs ($85,000), development of community parks in Duncan Town, Ragged Island ($100,000).

Perry Christie, Farm Road and Centreville, $31,000: Donation to the Joe Billy Blind Blake Festival ($31,000).

Sidney Collie, Blue Hills, $99,306.25: Resurfacing of the basketball court and fencing of a park in Bozine Town ($20,000), construction of walking tracks ($65,380), donation of computers to various schools ($13,926.25).

Philip Davis, Cat Island, Rum Cay, San Salvador, $77,000: Refurbishment and renovation of bathrooms at the regatta site ($21,000), repairs to the stage at the regatta site ($21,000), repairs to the road and bridges in Rum Cay ($35,000).

Earl Deveaux, Marathon, $100,039.10: Upgrades to community parks ($54,904), donations of computers to schools ($14,755), assistance to Bay Street project ($30,005.10), repairs to parks ($375).

Picewell Forbes, South Andros, $100,000: Various constituency projects ($97,400), projects ($2,600).

Shane Gibson, Golden Gates, $99,837.27: Renovations to parks ($32,100), donation to the Golden Gates Marching Band ($15,000), donation/upgrading of computers ($10,755), beautification of entrances ($14,695), donation to the Trail Blazers Basketball Tournament ($5,153.94), entrance signs ($12,000), donation of an air condition system for a school ($2,433.33), donation to a mini cultural festival ($3,000), quantitative analysis report ($1,200), installation of an electricity supply at a park ($3,500).

Kenyatta Gibson , Kennedy, $94,950: Donation to a Junkanoo Group ($30,000), donation of computers ($64,950).

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