The controversial appointment of Kurron Shares as management consultants to Bermuda Hospitals Board was nothing to do with the Bermuda Health Council.

If you don't believe that, go to BHC's website and see for yourself. Of more than 100 publicly funded bodies in Bermuda, it's hard to imagine many others, if any, making their position as abundantly clear on such a delicate subject as the health watchdog did in its minutes of a meeting on Monday, May 28, last year.

The notes — publicly available in what is a rare policy among the Island's public bodies — state under the headline 'Any Other Business': "Members were advised that the Council did not have any direct involvement in or information about the selection of Kurron Shares of America Inc. as management consultants to BHB in preference to Johns Hopkins International."

Not the most exciting statement of all time maybe — but in its blunt simplicity a stark contrast to anything BHB has ever said about the awarding of the $13.5 million contract to a little-known company instead of to one of the world's best-known medical institutions.

BHB has consistently denied being a victim of political interference, but CEO David Hill has refused all opportunities to directly rule out his board's recommendation for Johns Hopkins was overruled by the Ministry of Health. One difference between BHB and BHC is that the latter was set up just two years ago and immediately put transparency at the forefront of its agenda.

BHB — appointed by Government in 1970 — argues it is as transparent as possible and that it is unfair to make direct comparisons with BHC which, as a watchdog, does not have to worry about sharing its thought processes with potential competitors.

Explaining BHC's stance on transparency, its chief executive officer Anthony Richardson — a former BHB CEO — said: "We decided that we operate on behalf of Bermuda, within which there are various stakeholders. If what we do is on behalf of the stakeholders, then there should not be an issue in terms of making that information available to the public.

"It's about accountability. There's a meeting that takes place. The board will hold you to get things done, but more importantly the public sees what you have said, and they will hold you to it. That's a huge advantage for sure. If people have access to minutes it forces the organisation to be more objective, more focused, if not more expert, in their decisions and their conclusions, because they know the public has access to those things.

"I don't think the average person has caught on to that yet. No one has called us and asked for our minutes. I need to make sure as the health council moves forward that they maintain the current policy."

Mr. Richardson said BHC plans to increase publicity about the fact it publishes its minutes. Until this newspaper started researching for the A Right To Know campaign, it was unaware BHC had introduced such a policy.

The reference to Kurron was included after a board member raised the issue at the meeting.

"It speaks to the remit of the health council," said Mr. Richardson. "The health council did not have a role to play in commenting on that decision because the decision was made by Bermuda Hospitals Board and recommended to Cabinet. We were always very careful that we didn't interfere with decisions that were made by other bodies."

Mr. Richardson stopped short of calling for other boards to adopt BHC's approach and warned it would be inappropriate in some cases, such as the Board of Immigration, which deals with personal cases.

On The Royal Gazette's A Right To Know campaign, he had another warning: "Be careful what you ask for because there are inherent dangers in providing complete access to information ultimately.

"As an individual, you might want access to everything and once you have the information you might wish you didn't have it. You might ask me if I like you. But you might not like the answer."

He added: "For years, Bermuda has not operated on an information flow, so you have to be mindful of that."

BHB's finances are audited annually by the Auditor and an annual report is made public via the House of Assembly and the Senate. n public access to meetings and minutes, a spokeswoman said: "Minutes are not legislated to be made public and the public do not attend. Given the confidential nature of certain items that come before the board, that might require either patient or employee information to be disclosed, any public access to meetings or minutes or minutes would have to be carefully managed.

"However, the BHB is committed to meeting its legislated mandate and to being as open and transparent as possible, and we regularly update the community on our activities, plans and appointments through media releases, interviews, our website and community newsletter, Pulse."