All of the Island's MPs and senators have declared their financial interests voluntarily on a register which can be viewed by members of the public.

The Register of Interests — held by the clerk at the House of Assembly — was introduced a decade ago but was "sitting virtually dormant" at the end of 2005, according to a report in The Royal Gazette.

However, when this newspaper visited the House to view the voluntary register by appointment last month, many of the forms had been recently updated by politicians.

All 36 MPs and 11 senators have now declared details, where relevant, of their directorships, employment, land ownership and shareholdings. Some have not updated their details for several years — but that is likely to be because nothing has changed since they initially filled in their four-page form.

The purpose of the register is to encourage transparency, and through transparency, accountability — key aims of this newspaper's A Right to Know: Giving People Power campaign on public access to information and open government.

Like the register for MPs in the UK, the idea is to ensure that information about any pecuniary interest or other benefit which could influence a politician's actions be fully disclosed.

Bermuda's register was introduced after a long-running one-man campaign by Opposition MP Trevor Moniz who would like to see politicians required by law to make declarations.

Instead, a parliamentary committee oversees the register, as set out in House of Assembly Rule 50 (B), but does not have powers to impose sanctions or call MPs to give evidence.

Mr. Moniz, who has served as committee chairman since its inception, said: "If we ask someone to come and give us evidence and they don't, there is nothing we can do about it. All we can do is report it to the House.

"There is no teeth from the committee's point of view. It's difficult to prove things."

The committee is made up of three Government MPs, two Opposition members and two senators. Mr. Moniz would like to see an independent body given oversight — such as the new Office of Congressional Ethics in the States.

"It's generally accepted in western democracies that you need some form of independent oversight," he said. "In the UK there is the Parliamentary Ombudsman. In Bermuda they have boxed very clever because they have pulled her (the Ombudsman's) teeth and said you can't look at anything political."

Mr. Moniz also believes the Island's constitution should be amended to enshrine the register — as recommended by the UK in a white paper on constitutional modernisation in the British Overseas Territories earlier this decade.

He said he wrote to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London last time the UK Parliament was amending the constitution. "Their response to me was 'yeah, yeah, yeah'. It has to happen when something else is happening because it's a relatively small thing."

The United Bermuda Party backbencher said his party recently made a submission to the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee — which is conducting a review of the territories — that included a call for the committee to be strengthened.

Mr. Moniz is also concerned that there isn't enough transparency concerning the awarding of Government contracts, particularly where MPs are concerned.

"We need to have a process set up where we have tendering processes and hopefully some independent oversight from somebody like the Auditor General so that if a Government member is involved in Government contracts, it's seen to be above board," said the Smith's West MP. "They should publish all tenders."

* What do you think? Email arighttoknow@royalgazette.bm.