Premier Ewart Brown's stonewalling policy means The Royal Gazette is unable to report how or why Government came to award $28 million taxpayers' money to an advertising agency reportedly run by his longtime friend.

The renewal of GlobalHue's controversial deal with the Ministry of Tourism and Transport is one of a host of issues over which the Premier's spokespeople have shunned questions during the past few days.

Last Friday, this newspaper asked for a statement explaining why the contract was being renewed for two years in the face of recent criticism, and for a justification of the $14.1 million annual fee.

Tourism's relationship with GlobalHue first hit the headlines a few weeks ago, when Auditor General Larry Dennis reported taxpayers spent $1.8 million in overpayments to the American company in 2008.

American title BNET Industries then highlighted GlobalHue's "weird Bermuda ad expenditures", including a decision to focus spending on a gospel music channel and minority interest channel rather than targeting the honeymoon market or publications read by wealthy people.

But GlobalHue — whose boss Don Coleman has widely been reported as a longtime friend of Tourism Minister Dr. Brown — did not face any competition for the renewal of the contract last month because, according to the Official Gazette, it was not put out to tender.

This newspaper reported much of the above information in last Saturday's paper. Shadow Tourism Minister Michael Dunkley quickly followed up with a statement accusing Cabinet of a "supremely arrogant decision".

But any chance of our readers coming to an informed conclusion on the subject has fallen by the wayside as the Premier's press secretary Glenn Jones and Tourism's press officer have both ignored all our questions.

A number of other contracts announced in the Official Gazette last week also prompted questions we thought readers would like to know the answer to. All were repeatedly ignored.

They include:

n Could you provide any more information about the Italian marketing programme which Destination Srl gets $422,000 to run?

n What will Rooster Creative be required to do with UK public relations for its $94,000 per year?

n Is there any reason why two visitor information centres will be operated in Hamilton and three in Dockyard?

Tourism has been similarly silent on why Bermuda didn't submit its latest arrivals figures to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, which has prompted some to suggest tourism must be in bad shape.

In the light of public concern over the struggling tourism industry, we asked when quarterly arrival statistics would be available for the first three months of 2009. No reply.

Tourism has also turned a blind eye to questions about Henderson Associates Inc., which got hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars to organise an African Diaspora Heritage Trail conference last year.

The LeYoni Junos court case recently heard how the Hendersons published "false and fraudulent information" about the ADHT Foundation.

Questions we thought people would need to know the answer to, but were ignored, include:

n Was the allegation about the Hendersons releasing false and fraudulent information about the ADHT Foundation investigated by the Department of Tourism or the ADHT board? If so, what conclusion was reached?

n Was any action taken against Henderson Associates?

n How much is the Hendersons' contract with ADHT worth annually?

n Do they bid for the contract each year against rival firms?

n Can we have a list of the ADHT board members?

Followers of this newspaper's A Right To Know: Giving People Power campaign may be familiar with our calls for answers to questions we believe are in the public interest.

Some Tourism questions have gone unanswered for up to two years, including our request for a clear breakdown on what Dr. Brown's then political campaigner, Andre Curtis, did with hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars awarded to him to run faith-based tourism in 2007/08.