The Shadow Minister of Finance is calling on the Premier to honour his legal obligations and submit outstanding personal staff annual reports.

Douglas De Couto said the reports for 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, which are governed by the Premier, Ministers and Opposition Leader Personal Staffs Act 2019, have yet to be submitted to the legislature by David Burt.

Dr De Couto said Mr Burt has “repeatedly refused” to provide the missing reports, adding that a motion to this effect was tabled in the House of Assembly last month.

“Why do we need a motion asking the Premier to do what the law already requires? Because he has not done it,” he asked.

He said the law calls for Mr Burt to report every year on the personal staff hired by the Premier, each minister and the Opposition leader, including who they are, what they do, what they are paid and whether they are political advisers or experts in a specific field.

Each report is due by May 31 for the fiscal year just ended, Dr De Couto said, adding: “It is a simple public account of how taxpayers’ money is spent on political staff.”

He said Mr Burt “has regularly failed” to produce the reports and noted that the Premier was “politely and discreetly” informed in December 2025 that the reports were missing since December 2020. “And still he did nothing,” he said.

Dr De Couto said only after significant pressing in Parliament, including a proposed motion of censure, did Mr Burt table the reports for 2023-24 and 2024-25 at the end of the Budget debate in March.

The 2025-26 report followed on May 29 after further reminders, he said.

The shadow finance minister said the motion tabled by the Opposition “puts each MP on the record: do you agree that the Premier must follow the law and produce these reports? And if he continues to break the law, what will you do about it?”

He added: “If the Premier doesn’t have to follow the law, what should the rest of us think next time we get a traffic ticket, or a fine for late tax payments?

“And when the Premier breaks the law like this, where are the Cabinet ministers and backbenchers speaking out?

“The Premier’s actions reflect upon all government MPs, and their silence indicates their acceptance.

“As Bermuda watched the drama of the internal PLP leadership struggle, each contender promised a break from the Burt years.

“But ask them, how will they and each of their future Cabinet members vote on this motion?”

“Bermudians deserve a government that follows its own laws, and MPs with the courage to say so when it does not.”

The Government has been asked for comment.