Former Bermuda College employee Laverne Furbert on Monday criticised College Board chairman Raymond Tannock, saying he has been looking in the wrong direction in his efforts to make the College accountable.

Senator Tannock last week told his colleagues in the Upper Chamber that the College had ended wasteful practices such as staffers claiming excessive overtime, sending flowers to their superiors at the College's expense and selling personal items on the campus.

This week, both Senator Leonard Santucci and Ms Furbert said they would have been included in Sen. Tannock's anonymous list of miscreants - Ms Furbert sold popcorn on campus, while Sen. Santucci ordered flowers for staffers and charged the College.

One College insider called The Royal Gazette to say that Sen. Tannock's remarks in the Upper Chamber were veiled threats against Ms Furbert and Sen. Santucci - who have both been vocal in their criticism of the institution.

But the pair disagreed with that assessment when contacted.

"He's still not listening. I see it as Raymond Tannock refusing to listen to the messengers - instead he's trying to kill the messenger," Ms Furbert said.

"In my opinion there is so much that needs to be addressed which he refuses to look at."

Ms Furbert said that she would have wanted Sen. Tannock to focus on a human resources (HR) department that was far too big for a College of this size.

Further, she claimed, the College had wasted "thousands of dollars" refurbishing offices for the HR department at the expense of classroom space.

"The College under his (Sen. Tannock's) chairmanship has just spent thousands of dollars converting four classrooms that were damaged in the hurricane using the insurance money to convert them into HR offices and training space," she said.

"The previous officers that the HR department had on the third floor are empty. Those offices were damaged during the hurricane so they moved to the second floor and now those offices are empty.

"They are using converted classroom space when there is a shortage of classrooms. I understand the refurbishing of those offices cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars.

"But to go from the sublime to the ridiculous, the College had just spent thousands of dollars for training space in the Continuing Education division which could have been used for staff."

As for the criticisms levelled against College staff, Ms Furbert said that she was probably the only one on campus selling personal items and she was informed by her supervisor that the administration frowned on the practice.

"I sold popcorn," she said. "Before I started selling it there was another girl that sold popcorn to the staff and she left and I started selling it. (Vice-president) Larita Alford had a problem with it.

"I understand Senator Santucci is the flower man."

She said she then started selling her popcorn through the College bookstore.

"It's really petty and my reaction was obviously Raymond Tannock has been to the College to see what he had on people who had been outspoken."

Sen. Santucci was quick to admit that he did send flowers to his superiors on the College tab, but he said the practice was accepted as a way of rewarding people for a job well done.

"I worked in a revenue-generating area and if our manager, dean or a staff member, in our opinion, did an outstanding job on behalf of the department it was not beyond us to send them flowers on behalf of the department," Sen. Santucci said.

"I saw nothing wrong with that, then. Nor do I see anything wrong with that, now.

"If a staff person is doing something for the benefit of the institution for the institution to acknowledge their efforts on behalf of the institution."

Sen. Santucci added that the practice was particularly appropriate given that the College did not award bonuses for good performance.

"I think the challenge here is what Sen. Tannock is doing, in his attempt to appear to be providing the calibre of leadership required, they are trying to clean up anything and everything and they are robbing the institution and the staff of some of the rewards and privileges that they are entitled to," he said.

"You cannot equate terminating 'Jane Smith' with stopping the popcorn lady."

He added that Senator Tannock's comments only served to draw attention to the College.

"A wise chairman would acknowledge that there were negative things that have transpired and would set about to bring about constructive change."

Sen. Tannock could not be reached for comment.