PAC To Meet: Public Funding For America’s Cup
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Public Accounts will conduct a Public Hearing on Thursday [April 23] where they are expected to deliberate on matters relating to public funding for the America’s Cup.
A spokesperson said, “The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Public Accounts will conduct a Public Hearing on Thursday, 23rd April 2015 at 2:30p.m. in the Library at the House of Assembly.
“It is expected that the Standing Committee will deliberate on matters relating to public funding for the America’s Cup, and hear testimony from the Permanent Secretary for Economic Development.
“The Public Accounts Committee is comprised of Members of Parliament and is authorized by the House of Assembly to closely examine and report on matters relating to the accounts showing the appropriation of the sums granted by the Legislature to meet the public expenditure of Bermuda. The committee also investigates findings reported by the Auditor General in the Auditor’s Annual and other Special Reports.
“The current Chairman of the Committee is Mr. E. David G. Burt.
“Members of the public are invited to attend and observe the hearing to be held in The Library at the House of Assembly, 2nd Floor of the Sessions House at 21 Parliament Street, Hamilton, HM 12.”
Mr Burt, please can you look into Port Royal
Any idea when PAC will hold public meetings on the Port Royal fiasco???? Or does that NOT for into the Chairmans. ” swizzle burts/plp ” agenda of trying to stay quite about it????? Let’s not also forget all the previous stuff that was swept under the carpet either by the plp, all $800 million of it!!!!!
Good.
Now when will the so called Port Royal ‘overruns’ be debated by the PAC?
No you don’t understand. This is to delay and distract from any past indiscretions. Classic political move.
Then the Chair of the PAC should NOT BE a politician.
Burt should resign now and let’s have an independent professional chair it.
Look into Port Royal, TCD, the hospital wing, the new cruise terminal at Dockyard…. then you might be taken seriously Mr Burt
why don’t you attend meeting so you can see that the Committee is made up of both oba and plp members and Mr. Burt is merely the chairm=person of that committee ..he doesn’t decide unilaterally what is discussed.. sigh….agatha christie, or have you lost your nose for news…
The Chairman controls the agenda.
I’m not sure why the PAC is looking into funds that have not yet been spent when there are the matters like Port Royal still not investigated.
Any idea when Port Royal will be in front of the PAC?
I heard Burt say a while back that port royal had already been discussed although as far as I am aware it was not advertised to the public. He said that it was due to be discussed again at a later date. Really impossible for anyone to justify how AC35 can get pushed to the top of the agenda, when the money hasn’t been spent and Port Royal gets pushed down the list. There can only be one reason. And if the OBA members objected they would be accused of not being transparent. The chairman drives the agenda. Politics.
“America’s Cup put San Francisco $5.5 million in the red”
… and San Fran is a much larger sponge than BDA.
Knowledge and statistics ‘vs’ Gambling and trust
Details at: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/America-s-Cup-put-San-Francisco-5-5-million-in-5050201.php
Typical PLP half-truth. You forgot to mention that the 5.5 mil in the red by San Francisco generated at least 364 mil in economic impact for the people living in the area.
If the Bermuda government ends up 5.5 mil in the red and in doing so puts 364 mil in the pockets of everyday Bermudians, I say bravo, money well spent.
… if
Here are the steps to follow when making important decisions for the sake of all stakeholders.
1. Knowledge
2. Statistics
3. After you are satisfied with the knowledge and statistics, then you can Trust.
4. and take the Gamble. (it is and always will be a gamble).
Disclaimer.
I do not work in politics, nor do I support any particular political party.
You should always read the whole article. So, the city “lost” $5 million but the overall boost to the San Francisco economy was $364 million. What do you think was the overall effect on the San Francisco economy. Positive or negative?
“Not including the construction of the new cruise ship terminal, the America’s Cup generated $364 million in economic activity at a minimum and created almost 2,900 jobs, according to the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.”
Go back and read the whole article.
I agree. You should always read the whole article.
According to the article, the ‘overall’ effect on the ‘San Francisco economy’ was +$364 million.
I do not know enough about San Francisco to determine whether it was positive or negative. I suppose it depends on what happened to that money.
One should always be sure or what they are talking about too.
For example:
How does the “San Francisco Economy” relate to the San Franciscan?
Another point to consider:
The article discloses,
“the America’s Cup generated $364 million in economic activity at a minimum and created almost 2,900 jobs”
but at the same time says,
“Does not include more than $180 million spent on long-planned city infrastructure projects”
and,
“The terminal IS factored in, though, in the jobs, tax and economic impact categories.”
This is akin to calculating profit directly from revenue without subtracting costs.
Lastly,
Jobs are not the same as Careers.
Fact is , San Francisco lost all that money on a budget of around $20 million .
San Francisco only captured a tiny portion of the total revenue. If Federal and State taxes are taken into account then they were well in the black.
Disingenuous.
Even the article you cherry picked from 2013 states “That spending, though, allowed the city to host an event that drew more than 700,000 people to the waterfront over roughly three months of sailing and generated at least $364 million in total economic impact, draft figures from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute reveal. That figure rises to more than $550 million if the long-planned construction of a new cruise ship terminal, which the regatta served as a catalyst to finally get built, is factored in.”
No cherry picking here.
“America’s Cup put San Francisco $5.5 million in the red”
is the title of the article.
Just forwarding information.
Anyone who wishes to delve deeper can do so.
It is, and then it goes on to say what the overall effect on the economy was..in other words, it was a stimulus.
Fact is, this island needs more people, more overseas cash, and more of it circulating.
San Fran made the bid, but tax revenues fell to the State and Federal Government as well. We don’t have that same problem.
$77 million different ways to get the wind in your sails .
Lol yea I wish it was that simple to huff n puff n blow your shut the f*** up.
And $18 million from CoH.
800 mi….shut the…up.
That could have been well over a billion if OBA hadn’t been elected.
Does this mean the PAC are up to a ‘whole lotta PACK’ again?
A
Govt could have used the PAC to investigate when they were in Opposition if they were so interested in these alleged dubious expenditures. And if there were real concerns by this current Govt regarding alleged missing funds by the previous administration it was their duty to have started special audit investigations from day 1. So why didn’t they? How long has it been now and we still haven’t heard anything? Let’s hurry up and put this to rest rather than continuing this dumb narrative and conjectures about missing monies when this Govt has still not even investigated it. You really don’t need the PAC to do it. Probably at the end of the day there is no fire beyond all of this made up smoke being created. But if it needs to be done, bring it on already! But hey, AC and all the major pickings from it will be the focus to the ‘elite’ interest groups for the next couple of years now. Crumbs left to the common folk. By that time there will be another election. Everything riding on the AC. Smh.
How does the Opposition commence an audit? Please enlighten how the Opposition can mandate the independent Auditor General to begin an audit on a Government project. Please.
The PAC is nothing like an audit.
Oh, and the Port Royal audit report was just issued a few months ago BTW. If you don’t think there were going-ons when each and every capital project resulted in millions upon millions of overruns then you it must be sheer incompetency. The latter is much worse than the former as you can’t fix stupid.
PS: There are investigations that remain ongoing. Just listen to the HoA when Michael Scott queried why a forensic accountant has been on island for the past year and then listen to the former Premier’s speech at the last labour day to confirm that the investigations are still being conducted. These aren’t dumb shoplifters we are talking about.
Once can only imagine your response when the ‘dirt’ is revealed. Probably will follow the lines of you don’t believe it and it is all conspiracy by the big bad OBA against infallible and innocent PLP blah, blah, blah!
Also, did you see the report where 46 (38 of them local) companies have already benefited from the AC, providing 189 workers jobs they otherwise wouldn’t have had as well as pumping $5mn into the economy so far that wouldn’t have occurred without the AC. And that is only the first few months. But I am sure you and yours will b**** and moan that the AC isn’t simply handing out wads of cash to whoever you consider ‘common folk.’ Entitlement at its best/worst.
@politricks, well said on all points!!!
I for one am glad that it’s all front and center. .. at least it will be all out there ..unlike all the previous administrations projects that only a few chosen ones gained from. I will take any opportunitie to work on any AC projects…at least down the road it will not be somthing that can be thrown back at the OBA..unlike the shopping list of other projects. .TCD..Berkley. ..port royal. .etc etc…