Bermuda has more than 100 Government boards, quangos, committees, councils and commissions - funded by the taxpayer.

None, as far as The Royal Gazette can discover, hold open meetings and only a couple issue minutes to the public afterwards.

A Government spokeswoman said: "Apparently, it has always been custom and practice in Bermuda that meetings of Government boards and committees are closed to the public. The question of whether or not that custom and practice changes would need to be put to the Cabinet Office."

Asked for a response to our campaign's call for better public access to publicly funded boards, Cabinet Secretary Marc Telemaque said: "Particularly with statutory boards, many have the ability to regulate their own procedure which would include issues of access to information.

"Those boards have specific responsibilities under their respective statutes and in most cases they advise Ministers or make decisions which are appealed to Ministers or other bodies. I think an examination of each of the sources or means by which boards are appointed is the best way to address issues of this kind."

Here is a snapshot of four of the boards making decisions behind closed doors:

Bermuda Housing Corporation

Bermuda Housing Corporation - landlord to scores of Bermudians in affordable homes - gets about $4.3 million a year from Government. It was first set up to "ensure that all residents of Bermuda are decently housed" but became embroiled in a corruption scandal in the early part of this decade which is said to have cost taxpayers $8 million. BHC's role includes acquiring and building properties, developing and managing housing schemes and keeping a register of and controlling housing associations.

The corporation has to prepare books and accounts to be audited within four months of the end of the financial year by the Auditor General and submit an annual report to the Housing Minister no later than six months after the financial year end.

In March 2002, soon after allegations of corruption were made, BHC's 2001 annual report was tabled in the House of Assembly for the first time since 1999. But by the end of January 2007, it was among only nine government bodies to have issued their 2006 financial statements and Housing Minister David Burch said it had turned itself around. The BHC board is made up of political appointees.

Human Rights Commission

Government allocated $877,000 for human rights in this year's Budget. The commission, which is entirely funded by government, has a duty to ensure the Human Rights Act is abided by and that no one suffers discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, place of origin, colour, religion, belief, marital status, political opinions, family status, criminal record, gender or disability.

It describes its three primary functions as: to provide effective and timely means for resolving individual complaints; to promote knowledge of human rights in Bermuda and to encourage people to follow principles of equality; and to help reduce barriers to equality in employment and access to services.

Commissioners are members of the public, appointed by the Governor, on the advice of the Premier, after he has consulted the Opposition Leader. Their expenses are paid for out of the public purse. By law, the commission must produce an annual report every year to be tabled in the House of Assembly.

A report conducted by the Government's Central Policy Unit (CPU) in 2003 found that "the chairperson is not aware of reporting process or budgetary management. Investigation revealed that the chairperson had never seen or discussed the annual or quarterly reports, did not know what reporting processes were being carried out and was not aware of the staffing procedure followed by the commission". The HRC failed to produce annual reports for four years after 2001.

Bermuda Land Development Corporation

The Bermuda Land Development Corporation (BLDC) is a government-owned private sector company created to bring about the development of the former US military bases, totalling more than 720 acres and making up five percent of the Island's land mass.

The baselands - Southside (430 acres), Morgan's Point (250 acres), Daniel's Head (17 acres) and Tudor Hill (25 acres) - are described as the "last four remaining open parcels of land on the island of Bermuda" on BLDC's website.

The CPU's report on quangos said BLDC was dependent on Government for most of its financial contributions, generating only a small amount of income from rent. "For the past several years BLDC receives annual government contributions that have varied between $5 million and $7 million," said the report.

It added: "The government contributions are given on an annual basis and BLDC reserves the right to use that money to finance operating expenses, if necessary. This is alarming since having the option to use government capital grants to cover unexpected operating expense shortfalls may lead to poor financial management and inadequate control of costs and revenues."

Development Applications Board

The Development Applications Board (DAB) is an independent body of 12 members appointed annually by the Environment Minister to make decisions on planning applications. DAB generally meets each week to determine applications and its decisions are available from the planning department.

Minutes of DAB meetings are released but in a heavily edited format. Members of the public cannot attend the meetings and nor can the press.