The board of governors at Bermuda College was blasted by former Opposition Leader at the weekend for failing to stop the misspending of thousands of dollars of public funds.

Dr. Gibbons told the House of Assembly that it was indefensible for the board not to have known its responsibilities in relation to taxpayers? cash being spent on membership of a private members? club for college president Dr. Charles Green, plus his personal electricity bills.

An investigation by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) ? on which Dr. Gibbons? sits ? into the publicly-funded college?s finances found that the perks were not included in his contract and there was no record of them being approved by the board.

The payment of private club memberships from public funds is prohibited in the Government?s Financial Instructions, which the college should have been following in the absence of its own set of rules.

The board has now retroactively approved the perks but Dr. Gibbons, speaking during a debate on the PAC report in the early hours of Saturday, said that was not right and should not have been supported by Finance Minister .

?How can the Minister of Finance support the board retroactively going in?? he asked.

?They have not adhered to the Financial Instructions.

?I simply don?t understand, even at 3 o?clock in the morning, how the Minister of Finance can support that.

?This is a government quango. It?s taxpayers? money which is being used to fund that institution and taxpayers? money, under our Financial Instructions, should not be used to pay Royal Bermuda Yacht Club membership or bar bills.

?To now come afterwards and try and cover up and say they will approve it retroactively, that is total irresponsibility as far as I?m concerned. If they were in the private sector they?d be hung, drawn and quartered. They?d be toast.

?We hope that the board has got the message now that they are responsible for the financial controls at that college.?

He accused Ms Cox of doing ?a fair amount of ducking? over the PAC report and singled out the college?s chief financial and operations officer Lloyd Christopher for failing to adhere to the instructions.

?He knew it because he worked in the office of the Auditor-General. Government Financial Instructions were not foreign to him.

?It?s also inexcusable for (him) to to have endorsed those particular payments.

?It simply shouldn?t have happened.?

Dr. Gibbons said the PAC was told that the yacht club membership was justified because it allowed Dr. Green to ?rub shoulders with people down there who actually had some money?.

But he added: ?The president didn?t raise any money down there in any case.

?The whole thing was a total farce and a total waste of money.?

His United Bermuda Party colleague said the House should be told whether the college board had now put proper financial controls in place. And he challenged Government backbenchers and ? who sit on the PAC and signed the report ? to speak in the House about the college but neither did. Shadow Environment Minister said Government needed to stop rewarding its cronies with board chairmanships.

?What we need is professional managers,? he said.

?We need to clean up. We need to provide better leadership of these Government agencies.? Ms Cox admitted the college was ?wanting in some key areas? and said its board had failed to realise the importance of good corporate governance and minute-taking.

But she added: ?The college is very much in the process of being subject to change agents from within and without.?