Dear Sir,

Recently, Zane DeSilva, the Minister of Housing and Municipalities announced a $64 million loan secured from the Bermuda Commercial Bank to the Bermuda Land Management Corporatio, to support efforts to bolster critical housing needs. This loan is being guaranteed by the Government (taxpayer). I am sure that this latest announcement will be encouraging news for those 748 Bermudians who are on the Bermuda Housing Corporation's long waiting list for affordable housing.

When asked why he was not using corporate income tax revenues to fund this project, Minister DeSilva responded that the Government was following the Tax Commission’s recommendations, which was to use CIT primarily for debt reduction, and there would be a loan repayment by the government of $605 million to be made in January of 2027, which will make a sizeable dent in what is now (we are told) a $3.29 billion debt number. So the minister’s rationale in this instance is for the Government to reduce/pay down a portion of our public debt but then raise it with new debt. Politicians are an odd bunch.

I wonder if there was any discussion before this $64 million new loan was secured about reducing the Government's existing “discretionary” spending? We’ve all heard about the millions the Government has spent every year (without using CIT revenues) on things which are not essential to our daily lives and these funds could be redirected elsewhere to benefit the more urgent needs in our communities.

Watchdog groups, opposition members, and the Fiscal Responsibility Panel consistently identify areas of non-essential, discretionary, or wasteful spending by the Bermuda Government such as:

• Political advisers and staffing: millions spent on maintaining a large contingent of political consultants and advisers in the Premier’s and ministers' offices

• Failed or delayed quasi-government bodies: financial drain from underperforming or non-operational boards, such as the Bermuda Gaming Commission, which continues to incur costs without returning revenue

• Government travel: discretionary spending on international trips and conferences for officials, which should be paused to redirect funds toward local infrastructure

• Unsecured loans and severance packages: unrecovered unsecured loans (eg funding provided to private entities such as Savvy Entertainment) and multimillion-dollar severance payouts (such as funds for former Fairmont Southampton employees) without recovery arrangements in place.

• Consultancy fees: Large expenditures on external overseas consultants — such as multimillion-dollar contracts on education experts — whose measurable impacts or goals have been publicly questioned

It would be interesting to see how much money a dedicated accounting analysis could identify, which could be put to better use. Maybe Finance Minister Burt could review his 2026-27 Budget with a view to redirecting some funding to housing, before he steps aside in October. We might find that the BLMC’s $64 million in additional public debt wasn’t needed after all.

Alongside the BLDC and its housing initiative, the Bermuda Housing Corporation is also working to increase the numbers of public/affordable housing on the island to meet the urgent demand. In this regard, it would be helpful for the BHC to update the public on the status of their existing inventory of 710 public housing units. We were told in 2024 that within this number, there were 99 units in various stages of being refurbished, awaiting planning, building permits, etc. Have they all come on line? Have additional units come on line?

Since then, we have had piecemeal announcements of new housing initiatives, the latest one just last month, where the Minister of Housing projected the creation of as many as 1,350 new homes by 2035 and Mr DeSilva announced other measures, including improving affordability and the creation of yet another government department, called the Housing Authority and Department of Housing.

The taxpayer deserves far more accounting background on the overall housing issue than feelgood photo ops and the fanfare of affordable home announcements. This $64 million in new public debt is not chump change. Having a quarterly detailed statistical report on our entire stock of existing public housing, with a breakdown of occupied/unoccupied and unit status, would give the taxpayer a clear benchmark of this ministry’s real-time progress.

With regard to this new BLDC debt, I would remind readers that every year, our Auditor-General issues a “warning“ on her audit report for the Bermuda Government Consolidated Fund, stating that it does not publish summary consolidated financial statements that capture the entirety of government operations. In March 2025, our AG, Heather Thomas, wrote:

“The Consolidated Fund financial statements (for 2023-24) were not summary consolidated financial statements — with “roughly 50 entities with combined assets and liabilities totalling $4.4 billion and $3 billion, respectively, that are outside of the Consolidated Fund”.

The official public debt figure of $3.29 billion only accounts for the debt and obligations of the Central Government, ie the Consolidated Fund. The Government’s financial statements for this fund are not true summary consolidated financial statements. They only reflect the accounts of government departments, offices, the Senate, and the House of Assembly. The Government does not report a standardised, centralised breakdown of all of the individual quango debt obligations. While our gross national public debt is currently publicised as $3.29 billion, specific off-balance-sheet liabilities and debts for individual quangos (such as the BHC or the BLDC) are excluded from this number.

Here are just a few of the main, primary quangos excluded from the Government’s annual financial reporting and which hold additional, significant debt liabilities contributing to the $3 billion amount, referenced above by our Auditor-General:

• Bermuda Hospitals Board

• Bermuda Housing Corporation

• Bermuda Land Development Company Ltd

• Bermuda Monetary Authority

• West End Development Corporation

• Bermuda Tourism Authority

• Bermuda Gaming Commission

• Public Service Superannuation Fund and Contributory Pension Fund

I will end this letter by returning to the first paragraph where I write that the BLDC government quango has announced new public borrowing. At first glance, it is logical to assume that this is $64 million in new debt, being added to our current “official” $3.29 billion debt obligation.

That number is a gross understatement of the Government's actual total debt because the whole of the Government's assets and liabilities/debt have never been consolidated into summary financials, from the time the Government began producing annual financial statements, some 36 years ago with the passing of the 1990 Audit Act.

So take our officially published (misleading) $3.29 billion debt number and add in the obscure $3 billion quango/public entity liabilities and poof! In the blink of an eye you get $6.29 billion. The Government produces piecemeal financial reporting which is irresponsible and fiscally lazy and it is an affront to the taxpayer who funds every single thing the Government does.

So the next time anyone refers to financial statements for the Bermuda Government, remind them that they are looking at a skewed snapshot of our public finances and that the Consolidated Fund statements do not represent true summary consolidated financials for the entire Government of Bermuda. Something which our Auditor-General repeatedly warns is a transparency and (lack of) accountability issue.

BEVERLEY CONNELL

Pembroke