David Burt will today accuse the former government of failing to budget for a “staggering” $13 million worth of spending this financial year, including an extra $4.3 million on the America’s Cup sponsorship guarantee.

The Premier and Minister of Finance will tell MPs in the House of Assembly that his administration has inherited the “unfunded commitments” made by the One Bermuda Alliance and will now have to pay for them, adding to the island’s deficit.

But last night, Opposition leader Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said it was too soon to comment on the final amount to be spent on the AC.

She said: “It would seem a little nonsensical to budget for sponsorship shortfall when the projections indicated that there would be no need to call on the guarantee.

“Any shortfall could only be determined when all the numbers have been tabulated, and until we have sight of the final account, it is premature to comment.”

Ms Gordon-Pamplin added that Grant Gibbons, the Shadow Minister of Economic Development, was travelling last night but possessed “full information” on the America’s Cup finances that he would be able to share upon his return.

Mr Burt told The Royal Gazette, in an exclusive interview, that he could not “say one way or the other” whether the “staggering figure of $13 million” represented a larger-than-normal overspend by the Government of Bermuda.

Mr Burt said: “It’s not a question of if it’s unusual. We can call it staggering, we can call it whatever we want. The fact is that these represent the commitments made by the former government which were not budgeted.”

The items which make up the $13 million include $4.3 million on the America’s Cup, $2.8 million for the World Triathlon Series, $1.9 million for roadworks related to the new hotel development in St George’s, $1.6 million for operational expenses for the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission, $1.6 million for extra ferries during the AC, $250,000 for repairs to the weather radar and $290,000 for the relocation of the mail processing facility at the airport.

This morning, as the new Parliament begins its first full day of business, the Premier will table the items as the first supplementary financial estimate for the fiscal year 2017/18.

Mr Burt said yesterday: “These are all items of which we will have to pay for this year.

“These are commitments which were made by the former government, which had not been budgeted, and we are going to make sure that we lay these commitments down so members can be clear as to the commitments which were incurred by the former government.

“The former government professed their fiscal prudence and said they were being fiscally prudent and that’s fine.

“But what we are seeing is that this is just in two months. These are the bills which we found, which we have to pay, where the budget did not exist.”

Every year, before the new Budget is passed, the Government typically seeks approval from MPs for supplemental spending — items not budgeted for in the previous spending plan.

The Royal Gazette asked the Ministry of Finance for the total amount approved for supplementals for the last fiscal year and previous years, but did not get a response by press time.

But past reports in The Royal Gazette showed a $23 million overspend for the full year in 2014/15 and $24.5 million in 2005/06.

Mr Burt said it was hard to understand why some of the items this year were not budgeted for by the OBA, since they were predictable, including the extra for the AC sponsorship guarantee, the additional ferry service and the Casino Gaming Commission, the latter originally having been given a budget of zero.

He added: “The largest figure in there is $4.3 million to pay for the America’s Cup sponsorship guarantee, which totalled $19.3 million.

“There was a total maximum amount of $25 million and the Government budgeted $15 million for it.

“The former government was told [by civil servants] that the $15 million figure would not be enough to budget and the former government still under-budgeted at $15 million when the recommendation was that the best-case scenario was we would have to pay $18 million for the sponsorship guarantee.

“And now we are seeing it ended up being $19.3 million. So the $15 million was budgeted but now we have to find an additional $4.3 million to pay.”

Mr Burt also questioned why money was not allocated to the Department of Marine & Ports for the extra ferries which ran during the AC.

The new airport deal with Aecon was responsible for some of the additional spending, according to the Premier.

He said airport fees which used to be payable to Government now went to the Canadian company, leaving no funds to pay for repairs to the weather radar system.

And under Government’s contract with Aecon, the mail processing facility had to be moved out of the building it currently inhabits — or a $600,000 penalty fee would be payable.

Mr Burt said: “These are all items which were not budgeted but were commitments which were made and we felt it was prudent, in the interests of transparency, to ensure that the people of the country know precisely the items which we inherited, which were not commitments that were made by us but were commitments made by the Government of Bermuda, which we have to fulfil.

“I’m sure the Government had some idea of some of these items — they were advised on the AC sponsorship guarantee, so that is not something that is surprising.

“They clearly knew that they would have to move the post office facility from the airport — that’s not something that was surprising.

“So, some of these things, they knew clearly that they would have to budget additional money for, like ferries for the America’s Cup, but that money wasn’t budgeted.”

He said that though his government had committed to staying “within the figures” laid out in this year’s Budget by the OBA, the $13 million represented “additional spending”, which would add to the deficit.

Ms Gordon-Pamplin said she was “unaware of the underlying information respecting any of this expenditure” and suggested questions be put to shadow ministers.

Former finance minister Bob Richards, who retired from politics after the last election, declined to comment.

• To read Mr Burt’s statement from the House of Assembly today, click on the PDF under “Related Media”