Opposition Leader Michael Pintard said yesterday that the Public Accounts Committee will investigate the Davis administration's controversial trip to Bermuda.

"The government still has yet to show under what authority it was able to borrow money from the treasury for this trip and which sums appropriated by Parliament would allow for such a loan," Pintard said in a statement.

"We remind the government that funds from the consolidated fund can only be used for statutory expenditure and other purposes for which Parliament has appropriated the sums."

He said, "Even in their claim to have repaid this illegal loan, the government has not provided a breakdown of expenses, nor the receipts to show that the money was paid.

"We put the government on notice that this matter will be taken up by the Public Accounts Committee which will demand the government provide the legal basis for this loan, the persons who authorized this expenditure, and a full accounting of the monies paid from and received by the treasury."

Last year, Prime Minister Philip Davis took a delegation of Cabinet ministers, government officials and members of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) to Bermuda where they attended a political event.

The prime minister and his delegation traveled aboard a Western Air chartered plane to Bermuda on October 19, 2022 and returned on October 20.

Amid questions and controversy surrounding the political trip, the PLP later released a picture of a check in the amount of $24,750, drawn from a FirstCaribbean International Bank account, and dated October 21 (one day after the delegation's return).

Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Director of Communications Latrae Rahming said on that same date that the PLP paid for the trip, but at no point did he explain that OPM paid for it and had been (or would be) reimbursed by the party.

Davis said he met Bermuda's premier at a conference in Austin, Texas, early last year and the premier invited him on an "official visit" and suggested he come during the Bermuda PLP's convention in October.

Davis also indicated that at the time the government booked the charter, the PLP in The Bahamas was not a part of the trip.

He said he then decided that the PLP representatives would come on the flight and that the costs would be "reckoned".

Last week, Press Secretary Clint Watson said the PLP fully reimbursed the treasury for the trip.

The post FNM wants answers on Bermuda trip appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

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