Allegations that nepotistic tendencies had crept into the Bermuda College's hiring practices were frankly confirmed by new college president Michael Orenduff yesterday.

"It happened over several years," Dr. Orenduff said.

But, he added, the problem was recognised and corrective action taken almost immediately after he took over as president in July.

"It's not happening and in fact we took to the board this fall and the board adopted an equal opportunity policy," he said.

The Royal Gazette contacted Dr. Orenduff seeking a response to comments made by a former College Board member Dr. Eva Hodgson in a Letter to the Editor.

"It was obvious to me during the brief period that I was on the College Board that under previous boards and the former administration that the Bermuda College was being run like a private affair with the interests of friends being given special consideration," she wrote.

When pressed Dr. Hodgson would not provide any specifics of her claims - other than to say that a former president had been kept on as a consultant after his retirement.

"I don't really want to get into a discussion about it because you are talking about hearsay which I happen to believe," she said.

But in a rare display of candour from a public official, Dr. Orenduff told The Royal Gazette that there was substance in such claims.

"The business of hiring someone because you knew them or because you go to the same church... this has been going on for several years," he said. "It's not just something that happened once or twice."

He said a member of the hiring committee had told him of several such cases and his own research had turned up several more.

The college's former chief financial officer, Barbara Green had also brought "hiring irregularities" to his attention, Dr. Orenduff added.

"In some cases this is a difficult issue when someone says 'I think we should hire a black male because we need a role model'," he continued. "Sometimes it's done for what people think are legitimate reasons. But there was at least one case where someone said this person should be hired because she's a Christian - which shouldn't be a criteria. There are a lot of qualified Muslims and Jews and this is a public institution."

Referring to claims of discrimination against people of Portuguese descent, Dr. Orenduff said: "I will tell you I have not found any evidence of discrimination against Portuguese merely on the grounds of being Portuguese."

A Portuguese person who did not get a job because of discrimination in favour of a black candidate was likely discriminated against because he was white, he explained.

Activist and former college board member Robert Pires has in recent weeks brought the college's hiring policies into sharp focus with claims of racial bias. Mr. Pires stepped down from the board, saying his complaints about the lack of Portuguese-Bermudians on the College's honour rolls had been ignored by the board.

Dr. Orenduff said positive steps had been taken to eliminate discriminatory hiring practices. In September the College adopted an Equal Employment Opportunity Policy and a month earlier had established search committees for each new position.

The search committee consists of five to seven members and are appointed by the supervisor of the post being filled.

Guidelines stipulate that Bermuda College employees must be in the majority on a search committee and non College employees can be recruited if they have relevant expertise on the post.

For lecturing vacancies, the search committee must be made up of primarily lecturers - preferably from faculty in the discipline being searched for, according to the guidelines which were made available to The Royal Gazette by Dr. Orenduff.

Search committees are briefed by the College's Human Resources department on hiring procedures and participate in deciding how to publicise the vacancies.

They are then required to screen and interview candidates and inform the supervisor of finalists they found suitable and unsuitable for the position.

The recommendation of the supervisor and the findings of the search committee are then forwarded to the President.

Dr. Orenduff said the mechanism guarantees that "one or two people will not be in a position to make a hiring decision behind closed doors".

He added: "The College has a legitimate interest in having employees that represent the diversity of the population of the Island." As such, he said, it is appropriate that the employee population is predominantly black.

"I think if we hire the best people we will find a mix that reflects the diversity of the Island."