Opposition MP Grant Gibbons has called on Government to act fast to recoup thousands of dollars of misspent public money from Bermuda College president Charles Green — or face the possibility of never getting the cash back.

The former United Bermuda Party leader is also calling for the college’s finance office to be shut down immediately and a forensic audit carried out in the wake of a highly critical report by the Government’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The probe discovered that more than $20,000 had been spent on perks for Dr. Green without proper approval and strongly recommended that he pay it back. It also found that unchecked spending on renovations to the president’s campus home resulted in a $400,000 bill.

Dr. Gibbons, who is a member of the PAC, said: “Unless there is an immediate move by the Government itself to address these recommendations then it’s unlikely that anything there is going to happen. My guess is, based on prior experience, there is unlikely to be any move to address this stuff.”

Finance Minister Paula Cox will make a formal response to the PAC report — and the 16 recommendations it contains regarding the college — in the House of Assembly.

But Dr. Gibbons said Finance Ministers have been known to wait almost two years to respond to reports from committees of the House. Dr. Green is set to leave the Island next summer when his contract runs out.

“The last PAC report was tabled in the House on July 2, 2004,” said Dr. Gibbons. “The Minister, P. Cox, submitted her reply on June 24, 2005.

“The prior report was submitted on August 6, 1999 and was not replied to by the then Minister, Eugene Cox, until March 23, 2001. Hardly what you would call timely or responsive in either case.”

He added: “We may not hear any kind of response from the Minister of Finance for quite a while. Until that happens the PAC has simply reported to the public. There is unlikely to be any acceptance of the report until the Minister of Finance comes back.

“Yet there is nothing to prevent the Minister of Finance or, indeed, the Minister of Education moving immediately to address these issues.”

Dr. Gibbons said he was particularly concerned with the performance of the college’s finance committee, chaired by Pandora Wright, deputy chairman of the board of governors.

Lloyd Christopher, the college’s chief financial and operations officer (CFOO), told a PAC hearing that the committee did not normally review ongoing financial or accounts activity.

Dr. Gibbons said: “It certainly appeared to me that the finance committee was effectively dysfunctional. It didn’t meet frequently enough and it didn’t get into the issues that you’d expect a board oversight committee to address.”

He was also critical of Mr. Christopher, who he said previously worked at the Auditor General’s office so should have been au fait with proper fiscal management.

“I believe the job performance of the CFOO needs to be reviewed by an independent group because he was awarded a merit bonus in a performance review,” he said.

He added that Dr. Green should have been well aware that signing purchase requisition forms for perks for himself, such as membership of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, created a conflict of interest.

Auditor General Larry Dennis told this newspaper last night that the misspending of public money at Bermuda College was not unusual for Government-funded quangos.

“I don’t know whether it’s the worst or the most unusual (case),” said Mr. Dennis. “I’m faced with that all the time and this doesn’t look that unusual to me.”

Mr. Dennis added that if he really did think the college needed a forensic review, he would go in and do one. “If the PAC committee wishes me to do a forensic audit, they can ask me to do it, although I don’t have to be invited.”

He said he didn’t believe that the majority of the population would agree that the college’s finance office should be closed down.

And he said that although the college had not yet filed its accounts for 2004, 2005 and 2006, that was also not unusual.

“It’s not giving me a heart attack,” he said. “They are really behind. We give them recommendations every year. These people are highly paid; they should know what they are doing and they should be able to do it.”

Asked why they weren’t, he replied: “Maybe somebody should figure it out.”