The Bermuda College is rapidly bringing its financial accountability up to date, with financial statements for the years 1995/96 and 1996/97 tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday.

The statements for those two years are hard on the heels of statements tabled last week chronicling the years from 1992 until 1995.

Education Minister tabled the statements for 1995-97 yesterday, taking yet another step towards filling the gaping hole in the College?s financial accountability over the last decade.

?My colleagues will find these reports filled with the numerous developments of the College during this period,? he said. Some highlights, he said, included the completion of the North Hall ? one of the best-equipped theatres at the time ? and the construction of the Technical Education Centre. The Faculty of Continuing and Applied Studies was created in those years, and the roles of the Faculty of Applied Science and the Centre for Adult and Continuing Education were reviewed.

The two years also saw the College partnering with the College of Insurance in New York for the transfer of Bermuda College graduates as well as new legal and business management programmes.

On the administrative side, 1995-97 saw the appointment of a manager of Human Resources, and the undertaking of a programme of continuous quality improvement.

Graduation statistics improved in those years, with more than 50 percent of students graduating in 1997 achieving distinction or merit.

On the negative side, however, the College experienced difficulties with ?changing and unstable management structure at the Stonington Beach Hotel?, now a private resort called Coco Reef. Several bedroom blocks at the hotel were also renovated in that time, Mr. Lister said.

While fixed assets increased significantly during the time, principally in the form of the new building, operating costs also increased, Mr. Lister said.