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Gibbons: Parliament should have been told about $10m lease agreement with PHC

Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons says Parliament shuold have been told about $10 million lease agreement.

Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons has demanded that Government give a “full explanation” for a multi-million dollar lease agreement it signed with Pembroke Hamilton Club.Government agreed to lease a revamped PHC sports complex for more than $10 million over 20 years, club documents reveal.But the agreement, which would see schools within the zone make use of the facility, was never made public.And this, Dr Gibbons said, is totally unacceptable.He said: “If, as reported in The Royal Gazette, the Ministry of Education signed a 20-year $10 million lease with PHC in 2008, then we have to ask why this significant commitment of taxpayer funds was not disclosed by the Minister during Budget debates in the last few years?“A commitment of this magnitude would have a material impact on Ministry spending over a 20-year period and Parliament should have been informed, at the time the agreement was signed.“The Minister needs to provide a full explanation, including details of the lease and any other commitments that Government may have given to PHC or related parties.“How this matter has been handled and the apparent lack of disclosure to Parliament is yet another issue that the Public Accounts Committee may wish to review.”Ministry of Education permanent secretary Warren Jones has yet to return calls to this newspaper while Education Minister Dame Jennifer Smith did not reply to e-mails by press time last night.PHC president Chris Furbert also did not return calls.Even though PHC would not have received payments from the Ministry of Education until the club’s new multi-million dollar sports complex was completed, Dr Gibbons insisted the agreement still should have been disclosed.“When the payments come into effect has little bearing,” he said. “It is still a commitment that either this Government or a future Government will have to make good on at a certain point in time and it’s still essentially committing taxpayers’ funds to be spent and should’ve been disclosed when the lease was actually signed.”Dr Gibbons said the non-disclosure of an agreement of such magnitude was another example of Government’s lack of transparency.“The Premier has said on a number of occasions they profess to be a transparent Government and I think this is a good example, if the leasing contract was signed, where it should’ve been disclosed,” he added.“The Minister needs to provide a full explanation, including details of the lease and any other commitments the Government may have given at the time. If this agreement was signed, and the commitment was made, then there needs to be a full explanation as to what the thinking was and what the commitment actually entailed and probably a copy of the lease or agreement should be produced to Parliament.”In his president’s report for 2008 and 2009, Mr Furbert said the lease agreement with the Ministry of Education, which took nearly four years to come to fruition, is worth over $10 million.He said the agreement would cover as much as 60 percent of mortgage payments on a bank loan the club was negotiating to finance the new sports complex over a 20-year period.Club documents reveal that PHC is looking to borrow between $10 million and $11 million from an undisclosed bank, which was only prepared to lend $8.5 million.In 2001 PHC borrowed $1,202,778 from the Bermuda Industrial Union to cover costs for the installation of a new lighting system and work on their Warwick grounds.The loan was to be paid back over a 17-year period at an annual interest rate of seven percent via monthly payments of $10,075.93.PHC has yet to pay any principal on the loan. For the past several years it has only paid monthly interest fees of $7,000.After the BIU made the $1.2 million loan to PHC, the club successfully negotiated a 20-year lease agreement for $1 million with Esso for 20,000 sq ft of land at their Warwick ground.Esso subsequently leased an additional 2,000 sq ft of land for $125,000, to bring the total amount of the lease to $1,125,000.Monies for leasing the gas station property have been fully paid to PHC, club documents reveal.