Finance Minister Paula Cox has responded to an accusation of a "lack of transparency" over a still unseen International Monetary Fund report on Bermuda's anti-money laundering and combatting terrorism funding abilities.

Although the report has been approved by Caribbean finance leaders last month, it is still to be made public.

The Ministry has stated that it will be published "by the end of December," generally taken to mean sometime after the forthcoming general election on December 18.

An inspection was carried out by the IMF in May and the draft report was presented to Caribbean financial leaders in late November when it was approved by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force's 26th Plenary meeting in Costa Rica.

Yesterday, having been criticised by an Opposition party politician for not having the report published, Ms Cox said the report was being held up by "already established processes and procedures that these reports have to go through before they are finalised and published. In Bermuda's case these procedures are set by the CFATF, the regional body of the FATF of which Bermuda has been a full member since 1995."

She added: "It appears that there is some confusion by the Opposition on the role adopted by this Ministry. It is irresponsible at best for there to be any assertion by any politician who wishes to be thought of as credible to suggest that the CFTAF are gearing their processes and procedure to suit Bermuda's election timing. This is fatuous, ill-conceived and palpably wrong."

Earlier in the day United Bermuda Party senator E.T. "Bob" Richards said the assessment of Bermuda in regard to international financial guidelines was something that should be publicly available so that the people of Bermuda can assess the Government's performance before going to the polls.

It is believed the report has some positive aspects as well as concerns about the role of private sector companies in adhering to and promoting the anti-money laundering and combatting financing of terrorism initiatives.

In a Government statement last month, the Finance Ministry said it expected the report to be released "by the end of December" without giving any date for the report's release. The Island goes to the polls on December 18.

Mr. Richards said the report's non-appearance was "yet another example of this PLP Government's unwillingness to be open and transparent with the Bermudian people."

He said: "While there has been much hype about tourism, international business is still, by far, the sector most vital in providing both present and future economic prosperity for Bermuda.

"Yet a report that is critical to our reputation as a well regulated financial jurisdiction is being deliberately withheld from Bermudians on the eve of this election.

"If this report was glowingly positive you can be sure that the PLP Government would be falling over itself to tell us about it.

"So we can infer that because it is being withheld there are serious negative aspects of the IMF report that they don't want us to know about. So much for transparency."

He added: "This report is part of the international financial community's assessment of the PLP government's stewardship of our economy, a matter that involves all of us. The Bermudian people have a right to know before the election, not after."