Premier and Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown finally answered questions on the financing of his Ministry's Faith Based Tourism Initiative – and the answers made for grim reading.

According to Dr. Brown, former Tourism Board chairman Andre Curtis, who has also served as Dr. Brown's campaign manager in his constituency, was paid $345,250 in 2007-8 to stage FBT initiatives.

But Dr. Brown's answers to parliamentary questions only detailed how $208,089 was spent, leaving more than $130,000 apparently unaccounted for. Tourism released further figures on Sunday night that suggested that Mr. Curtis' company had spent $70,000 of its own money, along with the $130,000, for salaries and business expenses.

What's worse, it would appear that Mr. Curtis signally failed to bring in the number of visitors he should have in order to trigger payments, and yet, according to the answers, this money was indeed paid to Mr. Curtis.

The idea of attracting religious groups to Bermuda is not a bad one. From a tourism standpoint, this should be an important niche market for the Island, especially given its strong religious culture. And there is certainly no shortage of facilities, given the amazing concentration of churches on the Island.

But this kind of public-private initiative requires accountability where public money is concerned, and despite assurances from the Department of Tourism.

That's not to say that Tourism should not invest in new ventures that might produce visitors to the Island, and it cited the expensive and unsuccesful Culinary Festival as an example.

That begs the question of what new tourism initiatives have been successful in the last few years, and the "signature" event, the Bermuda Music Festival, has not yet proved itself in terms of the number of visitors coming to the Island.

But the major question is this: Mr. Curtis was supposed to reach certain visitor targets to trigger payments. In all, he was supposed to attract 2,200 but at best he brought in 482. So why was he paid?

World Cup bid

Bermuda's bid to be in the football World Cup ended on Sunday night, but the players and the Bermuda community can keep their heads held high, as this tiny country took mighty Trinidad and Tobago to the limit.

Leaving aside a possible appeal of the result due to one serious refereeing error, a highly controversial second goal was the difference between Bermuda going through to the next round.

No doubt coach Kenny Thompson and his players will be tempted to rue that goal, which many felt should have been disallowed. But the nature of football, and sport in general, is that there will be times when decisions and refereeing mistakes go against you.

What the team can and should do is use this performance as a foundation for the future. Bermuda has shown it can keep up with one of the best teams in the Caribbean, although no one would deny that Bermuda can still improve.

It's been said before that Bermuda cannot afford to let the momentum from this World Cup run slip; more fixtures and keeping this talented squad together is crucial. On that note, it is also important for the Bermuda Football Association to keep in sync with the Bermuda Hogges, who many feel have helped – without taking anything away from the national team coaches – to raise the overall standard of Bermuda's top footballers.

For now, we should all be proud of the Bermuda national team. The players should take a moment to savour a brave effort, and then get back to work – there is still plenty to do.