Premier Ewart Brown sparked a race row yesterday when he implied advertising firm GlobalHue was only criticised because it's owned by a black man.

Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards said the Premier was making a "pathetic attempt" to distract from the Department of Tourism's failure to get good value for money in handing out multimillion dollar contracts to GlobalHue.

At Thursday's first ever open Public Accounts Committee meeting, Tourism officials explained how GlobalHue had its contract renewed for $28 million in 2009, with no rival firm allowed to bid, despite a scathing auditor's report into the way it was operating.

And Mr. Richards told Thursday's meeting that, by sticking with GlobalHue, Tourism missed a chance to recruit "the best advertising brains in the entire Madison Avenue" who would have been queuing up to come to Bermuda in the economic crisis.

Yesterday, Dr. Brown said he was "particularly chagrined" to read Mr. Richards' comment.

"I take from that quote that the Honourable Member does not find it plausible that the best advertising brains can be found in a firm like GlobalHue," said the Premier in a Ministerial Statement in the House of Assembly.

"That is tragic, and probably goes to the heart of many matters here.

"If you are not the biggest known on Madison Avenue, you cannot have brains? Mr. Coleman happens to be a black gentleman who owns a very successful ad agency that has done excellent work for Bermuda's Department of Tourism.

"I find it ironic that certain members of the Opposition never fail to malign companies doing business with this Government that are owned by blacks or that are owned by whites who are friends of this Government. That is very tragic.

"I must state again that I am pleased that the Public Accounts Committee will now hold its meetings in public.

"However, we must be cautious with our Parliamentary privilege — we must speak the truth, and we must be careful not to stereotype what people can or cannot do based on their ethnicity or size.

"In conclusion, I and others in the Government are often accused of playing the race card. What is hardly ever discussed is the fact that there is no need to play the race card — it is already in play and so are its devastating effects.

"The Honourable Member Mr. Richards' comments are clear evidence of it."

Mr. Richards responded in the Motion to Adjourn: "It's very unfortunate that particularly the Premier of our Country can take what was a very positive event, to use the privilege of a Ministerial Statement, to say what he said."

He stressed his comments had focused on Government's failure to look at what alternatives to GlobalHue were available — only for the Premier to bring race into the equation.

"I think it's really sad and quite frankly pathetic to distract Bermudians from out was a failure in his Department to talk about race," said Mr. Richards.

"It's supposed to get the best bang for its buck; in this case they did not. This is the issue here. It's a complete red herring and a pathetic attempt to distract people from the failure of the Department of Tourism."

Meanwhile, Dr. Brown hit back at suggestions he's favoured GlobalHue because he's friends with boss Don Coleman.

"Let me state clearly here that Mr. Coleman is not an old buddy of mine, or a longtime friend," said Dr. Brown.

"I met Mr. Coleman because he was introduced to me as a major force in the advertising industry, as the owner of one of the largest, award-winning multicultural ad agencies in the world.

"This was only as recently as 2004 or 2005. I did not go to college with Mr. Coleman, and only met him in his professional capacity. However, since that time, I have come to admire him and his firm for the fine work that they do for us, and for others."

Since GlobalHue first won the Tourism contract in 2006, critics have claimed Dr. Brown and Mr. Coleman are long-standing friends. Dr. Brown has previously refused to comment when asked about such claims by this newspaper.

Later in the Motion to Adjourn, Minister without Portfolio Zane DeSilva said: "If the Opposition is going to pick on the Government over contracts not put to tender, let me name a few others. The Rugby Classic. The Philadelphia Triathlon. The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. All of these were sole sourced by this Government. Why aren't they objecting that these haven't gone to tender?

"If the principle is that if better deals can be found in these tough economic times, why would we roll them over?"

United Bermuda Party leader Kim Swan said: "I didn't intend to speak at Motion to Adjourn until I heard such utter nonsense. There are 14 million reasons why that's different. There is no comparison. To use such an example is an insult to the good people he has called into question. He's talking about small vendors who bring millions of people to Bermuda.

"You could have saved millions to help those challenged by the economic downturn."

Progressive Labour Party backbencher Walter Lister, who sits on the PAC committee, said: "I think the civil servants made it absolutely clear what the truth was. It seemed the Opposition only wanted GlobalHue, but the Government members wanted the facts."