A question mark last night hung over who exactly is hunting a ?mole? who leaked documents about Bermuda College?s finances to .

Stanley Lowe, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, stopped debate about the publicly-funded college in the lower chamber on Friday, telling MPs: ?There is a mole and that mole will be found.?

The same day, this newspaper had revealed the contents of an internal HR report from the college which claimed that officers in charge of ensuring proper financial controls were in place there may have been negligent.

Other leaked documents included purchase requisition forms signed by college president Dr. Charles Green for thousands of dollars of taxpayers? cash to be spent on his own membership at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

Mr. Lowe did not make clear who was looking for the mole and yesterday would not elaborate on his comments.

?There have been certain disclosures,? he said. ?The Speaker doesn?t comment on these kind of things.?

But his remarks in the House appeared to contradict the Government?s own plans to bring in whistleblower legislation to protect staff who highlight potential wrongdoing in the public and private sector.

Former Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton announced in May that a new law was to be tabled.source whose identity we are protecting ? said yesterday they passed information to this newspaper so the public ? which funds the college to the tune of $17.2 million-a-year ? would know what was happening there.

?The information was passed on because the public then is able to see and discern for themselves what was going on because otherwise they would not be privy to it,? said the source.

?The intent was to have the facts presented without bias that clearly established the point of accountability. There is no axe to grind with the college, with the Government or with Charles Green.?

College spokeswoman Evelyn James-Barnett said she did not know yet whether the college would try to find out who leaked the information.

She said: ?This was Friday. Today is Monday. Let?s be reasonable. This happened only last week at the end.?

She added that she expected to speak to Dr. Green on the subject.

But the source claimed: ?The college is in an uproar with a fully fledged witch hunt for the moles.?

The college?s finances are the subject of an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Progressive Labour Party backbencher George Scott claimed in the House that information had been leaked by someone on the committee, of which he is a member.

But Mr. Lowe stopped him, saying: ?I have met with the chairman of the committee and I am satisfied this is not where the leak occurred.?

Mr. Lowe would not say yesterday why he stopped the debate.

?The member would be fully aware of why but the Speaker doesn?t normally comment on any of the proceedings,? he said.understands that a number of PLP MPs approached Mr. Lowe before the session to allege that PAC chairman Patricia Gordon-Pamplin was to blame for the leak.

She said yesterday she was distressed by what had appeared in the press last Friday and by the suggestion that the mole was a committee member.

?The Public Accounts committee meets in camera,? she said, adding that it was not helpful to have the information made public at this stage and to have committee members suspecting one another of leaking documents.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin is preparing a report on the investigation which is due to be tabled in the House of Assembly shortly.

The leaked documents to this newspaper appeared to show the college was not complying with Government?s Financial Instructions, which it is not required to do by law but is expected to do in the interests of proper fiscal management.

Opposition MP Grant Gibbons, who was also cut short by the Speaker on Friday when he brought up the college?s finances, said yesterday that he was ?astounded? by Mr. Lowe?s comments about the mole.

Dr. Gibbons said: ?It?s not a question of looking for the mole; it?s getting to the bottom of the allegations up there at the college and correcting that as quickly as possible. That?s where their efforts should be focused.?

The former UBP Leader, who is also a member of the PAC, added: ?There seems to be the impression that this information is coming out of the Public Accounts Committee but an awful lot of people know about what?s going on at the college.?