Shadow Tourism Minister Michael Dunkley has repeated his party's call for the Auditor General to carry out a thorough audit into Government's controversial faith-based tourism project.

Sen. Dunkley spoke out after Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown and Junior Tourism Minister Marc Bean provided differing official spending figures on the programme from 2007/08.

Dr. Brown said $208,089 was spent on 12 events, with Sen. Bean saying $200,003 went on seven events throughout the fiscal year.

The Department of Tourism attempted to clarify matters by pointing to details that were either mistakenly added or missed out from the pair's lists — but in doing so suggested the discrepancies were in fact greater than first thought.

It was the latest in a string of question marks surrounding faith-based tourism spending in 2007/08.

The Premier's Progressive Labour Party branch chairman Andre Curtis' company received hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars to run the project but has received repeated criticism for failing to account for that money, while he fell massively short of his target visitor numbers.

In a statement, Sen. Dunkley said: "The Premier, in explaining how a statistical glitch masked the true state of 2008 tourism arrivals, said it was critical to 'regain the public's confidence' in his ability to accurately report visitor numbers going forward.

"The reported spending discrepancies in faith-based tourism figures are a sharp reminder that this Premier has a long way to go to earn that confidence.

"For too long he has played fast and loose with tourism statistics — always to cast the best possible light on his efforts, whether real or not.

"It has been the same for his faith-based tourism initiative, with its shady history of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars spent without any meaningful tourism gains.

"The spending discrepancies revealed in the press and in answers to Parliamentary Questions point to the need for a thorough audit of the faith-based tourism initiative under Dr. Brown's control. In that vein, we urge the Auditor General to investigate the matter."