Bermuda has paid more than US$3.7 million in membership fees to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) since 2002, The Royal Gazette newspaper reported on Monday.
It said that the information was released by the Accountant-General’s Department, which shared a list of more than 100 payments to the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat in response to a public access to information request from the newspaper.
According to The Royal Gazette, the sums, paid between March 2002 and July this year, totalled US$3,734,070, while related records show the island’s financial obligation to the intergovernmental organisation stood at US$67,823 a quarter, or US$271,292 a year, in 2024.
That was a 40 per cent increase on the 2023 fees, which were US$48,313 a quarter, or US$193,252 a year.
The 2024 annual fee of US$271,292 represents a 177 per cent increase on the US$98,000 payable when Bermuda became an associate member of ARICOM more than two decades ago, after having briefly held non-fee-paying observer status.
Bermuda is now pursuing full membership of the 15-member regional integration grouping and Premier David Burt, who is also the Finance Minister, has said he does not know how much it will cost.
The US$271,292-a-year figure does not include travel expenses for ministers and civil servants attending CARICOM events.
Meanwhile, the newspaper is reporting that after almost two years since it announced plans to become a full member of CARICOM
It said that the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is tasked with implementing the plan, said in a statement last week that it was ‘working towards finalising its CARICOM discussion document’ ahead of ‘formal awareness efforts’ beginning next month.
Bermuda, along with four other British Overseas Territories, the Dutch island of Curaçao and the French island of Martinique, is an associate member of the Caribbean Community.
According to the Home Affairs statement, the discussion document will include the ‘anticipated benefits’ of changing from associate to ‘full membership, as well as costs’.
The statement note the ‘importance of this national discussion and is committed to ensuring the public has a voice’, even as it acknowledged that ‘this is a sensitive time, and, in the interim, we urge media outlets to exercise care in their reporting’.
‘We also encourage the media and public to await the ministry’s official communications, which will provide the necessary context and clarity.’