n the wake of the pay for play scandal, Ewart Brown has been conspicuously and uncharacteristically absent in the press; quite a departure from his track-record of almost daily press conferences. That the Transport Minister has an affinity for air travel ? with his shoes on please ? is well known, making his journey underground all the more notable.

Despite this attempt to stay out of the spotlight ? in the hope that silence will starve the scandal to death ? new details continue to emerge. The ethical and legal questions persist for both Dr. Brown and his pension fund consultant buddy Tina Poitevien.

Other than the usual suspects, no-one has been brave enough to publicly defend the 'fundraising' luncheon held in Washington DC. The lone voices who dared venture out have ? setting aside the predictably desperate insertion of race ? professed Dr. Brown's innocence on the basis of his lack of direct involvement in Bermuda's pension fund administration coupled with the suggestion that those who "played" didn't get "paid" ? other than the Transport Minister that is.

Those issues however amount to only a fraction of the problem. Favourable responses to them all wouldn't put to bed some of the more disturbing aspects of this still young scandal.

Setting aside the specifics of "pay for play" for the moment, there are some other disturbing aspects to the DC event which haven't received much attention, but are particularly troubling.

For a Cabinet Minister to use a Government consultant, and a foreign one at that, to organise a political fundraiser is highly inappropriate and compromising for both parties. Consultants working for the Bermuda Government, like civil servants, serve the people of Bermuda, not a political party. Under no circumstances should they offer, be invited, or be allowed, to become involved in local politics.

The moment Dr. Brown used Ms Poitevein as his overseas fundraiser, whether paid or not, he brought himself, her, and the integrity of the Bermuda pension funds into question. Furthermore, the disclosure that Ms Poitevein is a close friend of Dr. Brown only raises more questions about her appointment as a consultant in the first place.

Unless you support taxpayer funding of political parties and electoral campaigns, donations are a necessary evil in politics. The parties and their candidates incur expenses during and between elections, and should be able to cover these costs through legitimate and ethical fundraising. A political party unable to find financial support for their candidacy is unlikely to be able to attract voters to the polls.

But this scandal shouldn't be confused with normal political fundraising. The idea of Bermudian MPs fundraising and accepting money from foreigners, in a foreign country, is unsettling.

Many countries expressly prohibit political fundraising from foreign sources as it tends to corrupt the electoral process by raising a litany of murky issues around the motivations and allegiances of both the donors and the recipients.

In Dr. Brown's case, his Washington DC fundraising efforts were aimed at the employees of foreign corporations with no physical presence in Bermuda, but a vested economic interest in our pension funds. Not much good that can be read into that.

Next in the list of worrying non-"pay for play" aspects to this saga, is the solicitation for "cheques payable to Dr. Ewart Brown (PLP)". Any MP, let alone a Cabinet Minister, who accepted cheques made out to them personally ? bracketed "PLP" notwithstanding ? is reckless at best or misusing their public office for personal financial gain at worst; a "shakedown" as they say.

Despite the claim that this was an innocent political fund-raising event, those cheques present as much evidence to support that conclusion as the following alternative one: that Dr. Brown was using his Cabinet position to raise funds from the Bermuda Government's overseas money-managers for his personal use.

Bermuda's political parties and their branches should and do maintain their own bank accounts. Donations should never, ever, be payable to an individual MP, but their branch, "PLP Warwick South Central Branch" for example; not "Dr. Ewart Brown (PLP)". There's absolutely nothing preventing those cheques from being deposited in Dr. Brown's private bank account, never to be used for any political purpose whatsoever.

Finally, everyone knows that in Bermuda you've got to "Pay and Display". The exemption granted by the Transport Minister to his Cabinet colleagues and their oversized cars at the airport doesn't apply in Parliament.

According to MP Trevor Moniz, the monitor of the Parliamentary Register of Interests, Dr. Brown failed to declare the Washington DC transactions as required; the second known failure by the Deputy Premier to comply with financial disclosure requirements. The Minister also failed to disclose the controversial and lucrative sale of a property to the Bermuda Housing Corporation.

This cavalier attitude towards the Parliamentary Register of Interests, an important tool to protect the electorate from abuses of power and conflicts of interests by our elected officials, is worrying in the extreme.

Public disclosure of financial information for Bermuda's MPs isn't particularly onerous; in fact it's completely inadequate. The Register of Interests is not a minor nuisance to be ignored at will, but even its minimal requirements appear to be too much for Dr. Brown.

The repeated failure to comply with Parliamentary rules is disturbing, before even considering the 'pay for play' aspects of the fundraiser. Additionally, the circumstances surrounding the Washington DC luncheon indicate either a terrible lack of judgment by Dr. Brown (and Ms Poitevien), or an MP with appalling ethical standards rendering him unsuitable for public office.

Any of these issues individually, let alone combined, warrant an immediate expulsion from Cabinet. A Premier who valued ethical conduct, and a Cabinet who weren't willing to have their own reputations permanently tarnished, would draw a line in our pink sand and declare this conduct intolerable.

Bermuda is on a slippery slope where ethical standards are being rolled back, accountability measures for public officials are ignored, and modern disclosure requirements are dismissed as worthless.

The integrity of our political system is suffering terribly from the actions of a few.