Bermuda has paid more than $3.7 million in membership fees to Caricom since 2002, newly released records reveal.

The Accountant-General’s Department shared a list of more than 100 payments to the Caribbean Community Secretariat in Guyana in response to a public access to information request from The Royal Gazette.

The sums, paid between March 2002 and July this year, totalled $3,734,070.

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Caricom Annual-Report-2022-FINAL-1.pdf

Related records show the island’s financial obligation to the intergovernmental organisation stood at $67,823 a quarter, or $271,292 a year, in 2024.

That was a 40 per cent increase on the 2023 fees, which were $48,313 a quarter, or $193,252 a year.

The 2024 annual fee of $271,292 represents a 177 per cent increase on the $98,000 payable when Bermuda became an associate member of Caricom more than two decades ago, after having briefly held non-fee-paying observer status.

The Pati disclosure included a 2020 letter to the Cabinet Secretary, requesting payment of the fees, from Dawn Baldeo-Koylass, Caricom’s finance director. She wrote that the fees were to “continue the implementation of the work programme of the community and to further advance the development process of regional integration”.

The Government is now pursuing full membership but David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance, has said he does not know how much it will cost.

The $271,292-a-year figure does not include travel expenses for ministers and civil servants attending Caricom events.

The Government’s online travel calendar for ministerial expenses details several trips this year, totalling $18,057, comprising:

• $10,094 for home affairs minister Alexa Lightbourne to attend the 2nd Africa-Caricom Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last month

• $3,135 for Ms Lightbourne to attend the 49th Heads of Government meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in July

• $2,130 for David Burt, the Premier, to attend the 49th Heads of Government meeting

• $2,698 for Mr Burt to attend the 48th Heads of Government meeting in Barbados in February

The calendar does not show the costs for civil servants, with the Government saying last month that “recent convention” was not to provide such figures in response to parliamentary questions.

Chris Famous, a Progressive Labour Party organiser, also attended the Heads of Government meeting in July.

The Devonshire East MP told The Royal Gazette that he paid for his own accommodation. He said a question about who paid for his flight ticket should be put to the minister.

Mr Famous said the Premier’s accommodation was covered by Caricom.

“The accommodation of the head of the delegation is always covered by Caricom, so the actual hotel part, at least for the head of delegation, is already covered, so that's one expense the taxpayer doesn't incur.”

Mr Famous, a proponent of Bermuda forging closer links with the Caribbean owing to its historical connection to the region and its people, said the benefits of being part of Caricom far outweighed the costs.

“It’s strength in numbers,” he said. “If Bermuda tries to lobby for things on our own, sometimes it’s not going to be in our favour.”

He claimed that the costs of ministerial trips to Caricom and other Caribbean events attracted much negative comment, while more expensive visits to Britain did not.

“This is really double standards coming in … people will quickly say we're British, but the majority of Bermudians have no biological ties to Britain,” he added.

Caricom has six other associate members and 15 full member-states, all in and around the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

The most recent Caricom annual report, for 2022, shows annual fees varied for full members from between about $17,000 (Montserrat) to $4.8 million (Trinidad & Tobago).

Bermuda paid about $192,000, the same as the Cayman Islands, a fellow associate member.

Michael Fahy, the shadow home affairs minister, said: “It would be very useful if the Government would explain to Bermudians how the fees are calculated and what fee increase would come with full membership.”

Peter Sanderson, a lawyer, estimated on a Bermuda Facebook group earlier this year that the island could expect to pay annual full membership fees of $1.5 million, which is about what Barbados, the fourth largest contributor, paid in 2022.

Mr Sanderson told the Gazette his “calculations were very much back of an envelope” using his understanding of how Caricom calculated contributions, based on “things like population size, economy size and also economic sophistication”.

He estimated the cost to be $1.5 million. “The actual amount would naturally differ from this; I'm just trying to be in the right ballpark,” he said.

Ms Lightbourne, the Cabinet minister responsible for progressing the full membership plan, declined to be interviewed.

A government spokeswoman said: “The ministry is working towards finalising its Caricom discussion document, which will comprehensively address the matters highlighted in the media request, including the anticipated benefits of full membership, as well as costs.”

Caricom spokeswoman Lavern Reid said the Caricom Secretariat “does not comment on such arrangements”.

• To view the list of payments and related records, as well as the most recent Caricom annual report, see Related Media

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Caricom payments Pati disclosure.pdf