The president of Bermuda College will "do the right thing" and pay back more than $20,000 of misspent taxpayers' cash, the Shadow Finance Minister has predicted.

Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which issued a damning report about the quango's finances and the perks enjoyed by president Dr. Charles Green last month, said yesterday she had not spoken directly to the college chief about the money.

But she added: "I have to assume that when you hire people in this position you have hired honourable and decent people. I haven't spoken to him and clearly I don't think he would want to speak to me.

"But I'm just hoping that the president would recognise that there was something, whether advertently or inadvertently, that occurred that was incorrect and hopefully he would just plain do the right thing.

"I think that if someone realises that they have had money allocated to them to which they are not entitled, I'm certain it's the honourable and decent thing to do to pay it back."

The PAC held an investigation last year which concluded that public funds had been used to pay for a private club membership for Dr. Green as well as his personal electricity bills. The committee said he was not entitled to such perks and strongly recommended that he return the money.

Dr. Green and the college's new chairman Larry Mussenden have stayed tight-lipped over whether the president will pay back the funds.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said it was likely that the college's board of governors were waiting for a directive from the Finance Minister, who will formally respond to the PAC report in the House of Assembly.

She added that Dr. Green — who will leave the Island in the summer when his contract runs out — and the college's chief financial and operations officer Lloyd Christopher should take responsibility for the cash being misspent.

Mr. Christopher sent an email to his colleagues before Christmas claiming all staff were to blame. "The CFO is the individual who is going to be writing the cheques," she said. "There have got to be rules and regulations under which he is operating. If he has not bothered to conform with the rules then he has to take responsibility for things going wrong.

"I just think it's something that both of them ought to be able to deal with."