NASSAU, Bahamas — As he addressed the controversy surrounding his trip to Bermuda where he addressed a political convention last week, Prime Minister Philip Davis told the House of Assembly today that while the Office of the Prime Minister paid for his trip, he will reimburse the public treasury for his travel expenses, The Nassau Guardian reported on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, in a “BREAKING NEWS” article written by Krystel Brown.
Opposition Leader Michael Pintard then questioned why Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Director of Communications Latrae Rahming said on Friday that the PLP paid for the trip. However, the prime minister did not answer that query.
Questions about who paid for the trip surfaced after the prime minister spoke during the convention of Bermuda’s ruling Progressive Labour Party. Davis and a delegation of PLP and government officials went to Bermuda last Wednesday and returned Thursday.
Davis said he was invited to Bermuda by the premier earlier this year.
“The Office of the Premier of Bermuda was in contact with the foreign affairs ministry to ensure that I would still come,” Davis said. “I then said I would go – travel as prime minister. They cannot separate the two.”
The prime minister said a couple days before the trip, the Office of the Prime Minister chartered a Western Air flight at a “reasonable cost”. He said had he traveled on a commercial flight, he would have had to spend a night in New York on each leg of the trip.
“So, that’s how it evolved,” he said. “I was going as the prime minister of the country. In the meantime, the premier also invited the PLP because the PLP of Bermuda, which was formed by the PLP of Bahamas, they invited the PLP to come as well.
“Once they said they (PLP members) were coming as well, I said ‘well, okay they can come; we have a 50-seater plane that was being chartered’. So, they came.
“I said we will reckon. By the time that was done, I had already made the arrangements. Once I decided that the PLP would join me on the trip, the arrangements for the charter had been paid for by the government.
“I left instructions for my senior policy advisor, because of the fact the PLPs would be on the flight, to make sure that we will pay for that charter at least and make the arrangements when we get into Bermuda [to] pay for the hotel.”
He said the decision was made for the PLP to reimburse OPM after all the receipts came in. See complete article in The Nassau Guardian at https://thenassauguardian.com/pm-the-government-will-be-reimbursed-for-bermuda-trip/
