Police are investigating Andre Curtis and his faith-based tourism project after being called in by the Ministry of Finance.

And an Auditor General's report attacks the "inexcusable" actions of senior civil servants who allowed Mr. Curtis to pocket $374,500 of taxpayers' money for very little visible return.

Larry Dennis says there is no clear evidence Mr. Curtis set up ten faith-based tourism events and brought 2,200 visitors to the Island, both of which he was required to do under the terms of his controversial contract to run the scheme in 2007/08.

The auditor says Mr. Curtis failed to provide Tourism with a report detailing such matters, even though he was supposed to under the terms of his contract.

Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown has previously claimed faith-based tourism lured 482 visitors in that year, but Independent MP Wayne Furbert believes the real figure is probably about ten if you discount the performers themselves.

Mr. Dennis wrote: "No documentation was provided to support faith-based tourism expenditures and therefore I was in no position to determine which events were organised or whether the funds paid to faith-based tourism by the Department of Tourism were spent on faith-based tourism initiatives as per the agreement."

Mr. Dennis said the Department of Tourism paid Mr. Curtis' company Harvest Investment Holdings $191,000 in April 2007, even though he was already failing to abide by his conditions.

He also points to Mr. Curtis' questionable use of funds, saying that, during that month, Harvest transferred:

• $38,089 worth of payments to Mr. Curtis;

• $11,906 to Mr. Curtis' credit card;

• $20,264 to Vision Construction, another company owned by Mr. Curtis;

• $30,000 to Emerald Financial Group.

Mr. Dennis wrote: "I recommend a Police investigation be undertaken into the affairs of Harvest Investment and its president.

"Assuming the investigation will support charges of criminal activity, I recommend that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Transport and/or the Director of BDOT make a complaint against the president of Harvest Investment Holdings."

However, yesterday Finance Minister Paula Cox indicated such an investigation is already underway, saying in a statement: "That matter is the subject of a Police inquiry that was facilitated by the Ministry of Finance."

Mr. Curtis was chairman of Dr. Brown's Warwick South Central Progressive Labour Party constituency during the 2007 General Election. Some have suggested that's why Mr. Curtis got the faith-based tourism contract, but Dr. Brown has always denied the allegation.

In his 2007/08 annual report, his last one before retiring, Mr. Dennis stated the contract was not put out to tender, even though Government had viewed it as a project that needed to be tendered.

He said at one stage Tourism said it didn't need to be tendered because Mr. Curtis had done so well organising faith-based events in 2006; yet later said the reason for not tendering was that it was a "sponsored event".

Turning his attention to civil servants, he added: "I have been told incompetence is not criminal. Negligence is, however. A responsibility of public officers, commensurate with their positions, it to protect public assets. The public officers responsible for the oversight of this contract obtained no deliverables or proof that services were properly delivered before authorising payments totalling $374,500.

"In fact, they demonstrated an inexcusable lack of care. In my opinion, the public officers with the responsibility to negotiate and oversee this contract and approve disbursements from the public purse were negligent. "Further, in my opinion the evidence at hand supports a complaint being brought by the head of the civil service against those public officers who failed to carry out their oversight and fiduciary responsibilities, and so I recommend."

The Royal Gazette understands Bermuda Police Service's investigation is a separate line of inquiry to the allegations Mr. Curtis is already facing in relation to Harvest, in Bermuda and in Montana.