BERMUDA Housing Trust chairman Ronald Simmons said yesterday said the Trust had "nothing to hide".

Mr. Simmons broke his silence of the past month, in which questions have mounted over the BHT's financial affairs in the wake of huge rent rises for its elderly tenants.

His comments came after the Trust issued a faxed press statement offering to make available its "financial information to those persons or parties that are interested in assisting the Board in the carrying out of its mandate".

Mr. Simmons revealed that the $1.7 million that this newspaper revealed had been in BHT accounts as of May 1997 had been spent on the construction of the Ferguson Park complex in St. David's.

And he added that trustees had moved to protect the Trust from being adversely affected by the scandal that engulfed the Bermuda Housing Corporation, the Trust's property manager.

Seniors marched on Parliament last November in protest at the BHT's rent increases, which in some cases asked tenants to pay more than double their previous rent.

And 37 of them have lodged appeals with the Rent Commissioner against the increases, which became effective in January this year.

But Mr. Simmons said some seniors had called the Trust saying they would be happy to move into Trust properties and pay the new rents.

Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent said this week that trustees had been offended by the line of parliamentary questioning on the Trust from Opposition MP John Barritt.

"There is no requirement for the trustees to reveal that information," Mr. Simmons said. "But we have come out and given the background on that information and our accounts are completely audited. We have nothing to hide.

"As regards the questions John Barritt has been asking, there is no issue there. This is becoming political and we on the board are just trying to carry out our mandate.

"If the information requested related specifically to the rent increases, then we could share it. That does not mean we have to provide financial statements. And some of the information requests have had no direct bearing on the rent increases."

Pressed on whether the Trust would consider releasing its maintenance costs to put an end to rumours of mismanagement, Mr. Simmons said: "What is the public interest in releasing that information?

"We have gone through the correct process to raise the rents and we properly applied to the Rent Commissioner. The rents we are proposing are in fact half of the annual rental value (ARV) of these units.

"New tenants coming in are paying rents at the new rates. In fact, we are getting calls from seniors asking to come in and pay our rents because they are lower than what they are paying today. There are a lot of people who qualify who want to pay these rents."

He added that a meeting had taken place with Mr. Barritt earlier this year.

"Members of the Board met with Mr. Barritt and we went over the maintenance budget with him," he said.

Mr. Barritt put forward a question about BHT's maintenance costs due to be answered today. But Mr. Simmons said: "Those were not the questions I understood were being asked. What I understood was that he was asking, 'Who were the contracts with'?"

All contracts were put out to tender and at least three bids were required and vetted by a sub-committee. The criteria for accepting a bid were based on cost benefit analysis, he added.

He described what happened to the $1.7 million that was in Trust deposit accounts eight years ago.

"At the time the board chairman Mr. Ferguson committed the Trust to building Ferguson Park," Mr. Simmons said. "That's what the money was used for. We also added some units at Purvis Park. So the Trust converted cash into real estate.

"The net profit from investing that money was about $20,000 a year, so we're not talking about a huge amount."

He said the Trust still had investments, but did not reveal how much they amounted to."

And the BHT chairman described how the trustees considered distancing itself from the BHC after evidence of mismanagement was revealed.

"One of the things we had to do as a board was to ensure that the Trust was protected following the scandal that happened at the Housing Corporation," Mr. Simmons said.

"We ensured that protections were in place. We discussed changing the name ? because BHT sounds so like BHC ? and changing our management provider from BHC.

"We had individuals coming forward offering to take over property management."

He said the trustees had decided to stick with the BHC under its new management for cost reasons.

"The Trust paid out $38,500 last year in management fees," Mr. Simmons said. "The services we got for that include property management, vetting of applications and rent collection. If we got those services from elsewhere, you can imagine how our costs would increase."

Mr. Simmons added that the Trust had lost money for each of the last three years as income from rents had not covered the costs of running the Trust, which included maintenance, insurance, taxes and management provided by the BHC.

There had also been some one-off expenses in recent years, he added.

"There have been repairs we have had to do because of hurricanes and things like cleaning out the water tanks," Mr. Simmons said.

"Then in our development at Heydon Trust, there were concerns from the community and the police about the lighting there. So we spent more than $50,000 to improve the lighting and fencing and so forth to give the tenants extra comfort.

"So the maintenance of the properties has been capital as well as day to day."

Mr. Simmons defended the BHT board, saying that it comprised "a wealth of experience related to construction and property maintenance".

"We are all citizens who have a vested interested in giving back to society," he added.