Ignition, the company which won the Bermuda College "laptop" contract, last week said that all measures to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest were taken before the contract was awarded.

Rumours have circulated for months that a major conflict of interest existed because then College Board chairman Jan Spiering was an Ignition shareholder.

Board member Richard Winchell was also rumoured to be a shareholder in the company. The concerns were documented in a Government commissioned report into the reasons for unusually high turnover in the College's Information Systems department.

In reaction to last week's story about the report, Ignition said that everything was done above board.

In a statement attributed to Ignition Director, Jim Gould, the company said that it was "extremely disappointed" with the story which appeared in Wednesday's paper.

"By way of background, Bermuda College hired Ignition to provide managed IT services following an extensive public RFP process where we competed against a number of other IT companies on the Island," the statement said.

"Furthermore, Richard Winchell has never been an Ignition shareholder. Although, he was a Director of Ignition at the time of the Bermuda College contract being awarded to us, Mr. Winchell declared his relationship with Ignition to the Bermuda College Board of Governors. Accordingly Mr. Winchell was intentionally left out of the decision making process for this contract to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest or impropriety.

It continued: "Jan Spiering was a shareholder of a company which is itself a shareholder of Ignition at the time the Bermuda College contract was awarded to us. However, Mr. Spiering also declared his relationship with Ignition to the Bermuda College Board of Governors, and was not involved in the decision making process for this contract to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest or impropriety."

The company says that its contract with the College allows the College to "measure our performance in a fully transparent manner, know what to expect from us and, if necessary, financially penalise us" if its performance does not meet agreed standards.

"We enjoy working with the Bermuda College management and staff to bring the user community at the College a superior product. We are proud of our relationship with the College, which we believe has been earned through our measurable and quantifiable service. We work hard every day to provide the same superlative service to all of our customers."

Ignition's statement follows the College's own strongly worded criticism of this newspaper in which College president Michael Orenduff accused this newspaper of sinking to a "new low in journalism".

Mr. Spiering and Mr. Winchell declared their interests in Ignition as soon as the idea to provide every full time student with a laptop computer came up, said Dr. Orenduff when asked about the matter at a press conference Friday.

And the College was asked to provide a timeline of events detailing when the contract was awarded and when Mr. Winchell and Mr. Spiering declared their interests. According to the College they declared their interest as early as December 2001 when the project called "Project Unwired" received "in principal" approval by the Board of Governors. It was decided then that deputy chairman Patrice Parris would deal with the president on the matter, the College says.

College Board minutes, dated November 2002, provided by Ignition and the College show that the Board members had agreed that Mr. Spiering and Mr. Winchell had declared their interest.

College executives said that an honest error had been made by not documenting the declaration in a timely manner, when questioned Friday.

Eugenie Simmons, Director of the Centre for Professional and Career Enhancement, offered that the Board members were known for their "levels of credibility, integrity and ethical conduct".

"It is highly unlikely that a board (composed) of these people could be coerced into to collude in something that you are insinuating," she said.

"What we are looking at is an honest error."

Retired civil servant Edwin Wilson completed a report into the College in October 2002. The College also made available a statement signed in December 2002, by the members of the Information Systems Steering Committee (ISSC) that recommended awarding the contract to Ignition that College Board members had not attempted to influence them.

"I affirm that I do not know of any information or influence from the Bermuda College Board of Governors, or from anyone on or representing the Board, in regard to any ISSC matter, and specifically in relation to selection of a vendor for the Laptop Initiative," the statement said.