Henry Smith, former chief executive of the Bank of Bermuda, told a human rights Tribunal yesterday that over three decades with the bank he never encountered racial discrimination ? either first hand or in investigating allegations that surfaced from time to time. Mr. Smith took the witness stand before a Tribunal appointed to consider whether he and 16 other Bank of Bermuda directors racially discriminated against Bermuda businessman Harold Darrell.

"We tried everything we could to help him succeed and we just couldn't, we just couldn't," Mr. Smith said yesterday of attempts to work with Mr. Darrell, who was seeking funding to start a cable television service.

Mr. Darrell, a longtime bank customer, fell as far as $700,000 in arrears. Lawyers for the respondent, during cross-examination of Mr. Darrell's testimony earlier this week, showed a paper trail of financial arrangements, including a period where interest was waived, attempted to resolve Mr. Darrell's cash flow problems. The Human Rights Tribunal has been sitting since September 21 to consider allegations that bank directors racially discriminated against Mr. Darrell in 2000 by not properly investigating a breach of contract.

Mr. Smith said the bank took Mr. Darrell's complaint seriously, but were limited in what they could do once he filed a civil law suit. That matter is to be heard separately in a November Supreme Court hearing. Mr. Darrell charges the alleged breach of confidential information to an associate cost him a key business partnership that would have got the cable service off the ground. And Mr. Darrell contends the leak cut off financial avenues to get his business off the ground.

In a 2000 letter that predated his human rights complaint, Mr. Darrell asked the bank to hold an inquiry into the breach, the hearing heard yesterday. The bank's board did not personally respond to Mr. Darrell's request for an inquiry on the advice of counsel, because of the outstanding civil matter. But Mr. Darrell contends the directors failure to respond was racially motivated.

Mr. Smith was the first respondent to take the witness stand, after Mr. Darrell gave evidence during the early part of the week. Two witnesses for Mr. Darrell ? Neville Darrell and the Sharon Kirby ? also took the stand this week. A third witness, Ulrick (Rick) Richardson, did not appear on Thursday or yesterday morning as expected. A summons was to have been issued on Thursday.

Mr. Darrell, during the hearing, charged the bank has a climate of institutional racism, and that black businessmen get the worst treatment.

Mr. Smith told the Tribunal he didn't see any examples of race discrimination as he climbed the ranks. Nor did he uncover any when he was chief executive officer, and sometimes was called on to investigate reports of staff allegations of racial discrimination. Mr. Smith conceded that racial problems do exist in Bermuda but said each allegation that was looked at uncovered another root cause.

Corey Butterfield, assistant to Harold Darrell, cross-examined Mr. Smith's written testimony. Pointing to Coalition for Unity and Racial Equality statistics that 68 percent of senior management positions in Bermuda are held by whites, Mr. Butterfield asked Mr. Smith why banks were not better represented in the senior ranks.

"I think the bank's numbers would have been a little bit better," Mr. Smith said, saying that from the time he was named to lead the bank in 1997 he instituted some key changes. He said his management style was based on two principles: good business sense and strong moral fibre.

Mr. Smith said about the time he took over the bank an Equal Opportunities Committee was formed ? and mandatory diversity training was put in place for directors, executives and managers. And he said profit-sharing and training programmes were set up for staff, to allow the chance for each to better themselves, win promotions and have a share in the income they helped earn.

"You have to tap the talent in every single of (your employees) whether male, female, white or black," he said. Another change was to move the bank to a more neutral political stance with the institution having previously aligned itself with the UBP. He said it was "not right for the bank to have a [political view," and moved the bank to an equal-contributions policy for any political donations.

Mr. Smith said while racial problems did exist, recognising them was a step in the right direction. "This is a chance for all of us, not just the Bank of Bermuda," he said.

The Tribunal heard that the first black executive to rise to a senior management position within the bank was Alan Richardson in 1994.

And Mr. Smith said the bank's two executive levels had had up to five positions held by black Bermudians. Mr. Smith said he brought Mr. Richardson into the executive ranks, and another black Bermudian, current chief executive Phil Butterfield, was also recruited by Mr. Smith. Mr. Butterfield succeeded Mr. Smith in 2004 when the bank was sold to banking giant HSBC Plc. Mr. Darrell, who waited five years to have his complaint heard, said this week he had been tempted to settle with the bank. On Thursday he charged he was under greater scrutiny than those charged in the human rights complaint, that his credibility had been attacked. Over the period, he said his personal and family life suffered. "I waited five years to sit here too," Mr. Smith said on the stand yesterday. And he said the intervening period had also worn on him and his family because of damaging reports that tied him to Mr. Darrell's allegations.

Respondents' lawyers have said during the hearing that the 17 directors are under "very serious allegations" but that Mr. Darrell may have brought the charges as a "business ploy" to escape his debt, or force the bank to settle the civil suit.

Mr. Darrell's 2000 human rights complaint alleges the bank directors and Mr. Smith did not properly investigate his breach charge because he and his witnesses are black. He maintains this may not have been an intentionally racist act on the part of individuals themselves, but the directors as the "heart and mind" of the bank are responsible for rooting out racism that occurs within the institution, including a climate of institutional racism.

Questions related to institutional racism raised repeated complaints from Saul Froomkin, counsel for Mr. Smith. He said his client should not be "harangued" with questions on institutional racism when that is not stated as the issue in Mr. Darrell's complaint.

The directors under the racial allegations are those who sat on the board when the human rights complaint was filed in October 2000.

The Tribunal is set to reconvene in early 2006. The hearing, which was initially expected to go eight days and end yesterday, will reconvene in late January or early February after falling behind schedule.