Former Cabinet Minister Zane DeSilva is accused of telling six lies to the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee when it quizzed him last year about the $24.5 million refurbishment of Port Royal Golf Course.

A lawsuit filed by Attorney-General Trevor Moniz against him, other former trustees of the golf course, and his company Island Construction, alleges that his willingness to “lie to a committee of Parliament” on April 27, 2016, along with earlier conduct, showed he “engaged in a deliberate and repeated course of conduct to deceive the Government and the wider public”.

The civil complaint claims the Progressive Labour Party MP took part in “self-dealing” — awarding contracts as a member of the board of trustees to his own company and not declaring any conflicts of interest — to personally profit from a taxpayer-funded project to revamp the Southampton facility in time for the 2009 PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

The project ran more than $20 million over budget and Auditor-General Heather Jacobs Matthews wrote in a damning 2014 report that it was not possible to conclude whether the board of trustees used all of the funds it received for the intended purpose or whether it had fully accounted for the money.

Mr DeSilva said on Wednesday he would fight the lawsuit “to the end”, adding that the board of trustees “did everything by the book”.

The first allegations of self-dealing in relation to Port Royal emerged in 2008, when the Mid-Ocean News ran a front-page story quoting construction and landscape bosses who were angry that the contract to refurbish the golf course had not gone out to tender.

Jeff Sousa, owner of Sousa’s Land Management and now a One Bermuda Alliance MP, claimed it was awarded in secret and that the “whole bidding process stinks”.

The story prompted a response a week later from Wendall Brown, then chairman of the board of trustees for the island’s public golf courses.

Prominent businessman Mr Brown, who is also a defendant to this claim, told the newspaper there was no main contractor for the refurbishment project.

Mr Brown, chairman of BDC 2000 Ltd, a director of Argus and a former director of Butterfield Bank, said Island Construction had been given a subcontract to excavate ponds and grade and sift material throughout the course but “at no point was Mr Zane DeSilva involved with the bidding process, either as a trustee or as a representative of Island Construction”.

Mr Moniz’s complaint claims that statement was “false and misleading” as Mr DeSilva was “at all material times” a director and owner of Island Construction and was “one of its controlling minds and wills”. It says Mr Brown “conspired to conceal” Mr DeSilva’s “breach of fiduciary duty” to the public purse.

The writ of summons says: “The trustees did not adopt any procedure for avoiding conflicts of interest or of withdrawing from discussions in which their personal interests might conflict with those of the [Government].”

The Auditor’s report led the bipartisan Public Accounts Committee to investigate the project. Mr Brown gave evidence on April 30, 2015, when he told MPs: “I make no apologies that we blew the budget. I think we delivered this so Bermuda could benefit from the PGA.”

On April 27 last year, Mr DeSilva opted to give evidence to the PAC, insisting there was no doubt that taxpayers got value for money since Port Royal was now “one of the top public golf courses in the world”.

The lawsuit claims the following six statements he made to the committee were false:

• That he was not involved in determining the rates charged by Island Construction for equipment hire. The complaint alleges he “remained actively involved in determining the rates” and Island was paid about $1.2 million by the board for equipment hire.

• That he was not involved in the award of any contracts to Island Construction. The lawsuit claims Mr DeSilva “failed to withdraw from any discussion being held by the board of trustees about the possibility of making contracts” with his company.

• That he did not participate in any meetings with golf course project manager Daniel Lemoine and his brother Allan DeSilva, a fellow principal of Island Construction, regarding the equipment hire contract.

• That he recused himself from the board’s discussions regarding the equipment hire contract. The complaint says he “played a full and active part” in the board of trustees’ discussions about the award of the equipment hire contract and a $600,000 contract for excavation services.

• That he declared his conflict as a principal of Island and a trustee.

• That the board received rates for excavation costs from D&J Excavating, which were higher than Island’s rates.

The lawsuit claims Mr DeSilva “knew all of these statements to be false but deliberately proceeded falsely to perpetuate the idea that he had not participated in, indeed had absented himself from the award of contracts to [Island], which had been awarded after proper and full competitive tendering processes.”

It also accuses Mr Brown of lying in his evidence to the PAC, by saying that the board of trustees had only dealt with Allan DeSilva and not Zane DeSilva regarding the refurbishment project.

Another defendant in the lawsuit is SAL Limited, which Mr Brown was a director and owner of “at all material times”, according to the complaint. It says the board gave a contract for constructing golf cart paths to Richold Construction Co Ltd with concrete supplied by SAL and that Mr Brown did not disclose his interest in SAL to the Government.

It wasn’t possible to reach Mr Brown or a fifth defendant, Delano Bulford, yesterday.

• On occasion The Royal Gazette may decide to not allow comments on what we consider to be a controversial or contentious story. As we are legally liable for any slanderous or defamatory comments made on our website, this move is for our protection as well as that of our readers.