BERMUDA Housing Trust chairman Ronald Simmons has refused to allow Auditor General Larry Dennis to see the Trust's financial statements because he says the BHT is not a Government-controlled agency.

But that did not prevent Mr. Simmons making an overseas trip at taxpayers' expense earlier this year, when he accompanied Works & Engineering and Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent and three civil servants, the Mid-Ocean News has learned.

Whether or not the Trust can be considered "Government-controlled" has become an issue over the past fortnight, after the Auditor sent a written request to the BHT's board of trustees requesting to audit their accounts.

Mr. Dennis took that action after concerns were raised by United Bermuda Party MP John Barritt about the Trust foisting huge rent hikes onto its elderly tenants and then refusing to make public its accounts.

Mr. Simmons then made a media statement stating that the Auditor General was not entitled to look over the BHT's financial statements as the Trust was not Government-controlled.

But the Auditor responded with a letter to the editor, published by The Royal Gazette on Tuesday, in which he laid out his case for his entitlement to audit the Trust's accounts.

Mr. Dennis wrote that the Bermuda Housing Trust Act 1965 required the board to be appointed by the Governor, on the advice of the Minister.

The letter continued: "It is my understanding . . . the Governor's office is not brought into the loop at all in the appointment of members to the board; the Minister appoints directly. In my humble opinion, therefore, the Minister appoints the board of the Bermuda Housing Trust; therefore there is Government control; therefore the Auditor General is the auditor." Mr. Simmons did not answer our telephone message yesterday. We intended to ask him about Mr. Dennis' opinions and how his own publicly funded trip sat with his insistence that the BHT was not a Government-controlled agency.

Brief details of the trip were revealed in Mr. DeVent's answer to a parliamentary question from Shadow Works & Engineering Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin about the Minister's overseas travel.

The trip took place from April 13 to 15 and the location and purpose were not revealed in the answer. Accompanying the Minister and the BHT chairman were Works & Engineering Ministry Permanent Secretary Russell Wade, Bermuda Housing Corporation general manager Vance Campbell and Bermuda Land Development Company vice-president of project finance, Andrew Swan.

Public money spent on the trip amounted to $6,370.04.

The BHT was founded by an Act of Parliament in 1965 and was given the job of providing housing for the needy elderly at low rents.

The recent rent rises saw some tenants being asked to pay more than double their previous monthly payments. Consequently, 32 tenants have taken their case against Rent Commissioner Eugene Foley's approval of the new rents to Magistrates' Court, a hearing scheduled for next month.

The BHT owns 82 units at Purvis Park in Devonshire, Heydon Park in Somerset, Elizabeth Hills in Pembroke and Ferguson Park in St. David's.

Although the BHT has refused to allow the public to see its financial statements, this newspaper was able to verify that there was $1.7 million in BHT accounts, as of May 1997, and some have questioned where the money has gone. Mr. Simmons has said that $1.7 million was spent by the Trust on building the Ferguson Park housing complex in St. David's. And he has argued that the rent rises were necessary as maintenance costs alone amounted to $305 per unit, per month. That amounts to around $300,000 per year for the Trust's properties.

In this week's letter, Mr. Dennis expressed the opinion that "current thinking on the accountability of public officials on their responsibilities and of the use of public resources would require tabling the accounts of the Bermuda Housing Trust in the House of Assembly."

He added: "Indeed, I would find it very strange if a deemed Government-controlled organisation was not expected to operate in the environment of public accountability."

The Bermuda Housing Trust Act 1965 said the Trust's mission should be to "provide low-cost housing for the needy elderly".

And, in the words of the Act, the Trust's function was to initiate "the relief of poverty, suffering and misfortune among elderly persons in Bermuda by the provision of accommodation for such persons on reasonable terms".