Attempts by two Government ministers to interfere with the workings of a parliamentary watchdog group that shone a spotlight on the spending of public money by Bermuda College President Charles Green was halted after a tough line was taken by the Opposition MP chairperson.

Whether the ministers sought to cast influence on the investigation or simply had a lack of understanding about where their sphere of influence ended is academic in the circumstances as both were shooed away from the Public Accounts Committee by Pat Gordon-Pamplin.

“If a minister comes to me and says they want to accommodate a certain person, I am going to say ‘go and take a flying leap’,” she said, referring to a ministerial attempt to have the committee shuffle its timetable to allow a person not invited by the committee to attend a session.

The UBP shadow finance minister warned that no minister will be allowed to exert influence over or interfere with the process of the watchdog committee while she is chairperson.

The PAC last week revealed its findings regarding public money expenses claimed by Bermuda College President Dr. Green and strongly recommended he repay more than $20,000 to the college in light of money that was spent, but not agreed in his contract, for such things as membership of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and his home electricity bills. In a list of recommendations, the committee states ministers should not interfere in the PAC deliberations after “certain situations” arose during the college investigation.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said no interference was allowed as she had stood firm.

“The PAC ensures people who are invited to attend, show up accordingly to time or, as happened in the particular instance, we had invited someone to attend and they wanted to bring someone else,” she explained.

“The other person could not make the time that I had established for the meeting so a request was made to change the time of the meeting to accommodate an individual who had not been invited. I refused to do it.

“So, basically the individual to whom it was inconvenient went to the minister and the minister came back and said the PAC did not have the right to decide who could come and who could not come and that the minister was requesting the meeting be changed.”

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin replied to the minister stating she was certain the interference was purely to “expedite an effective meeting” and nothing more, but stated PAC has every right to refuse to change arrangements of a meeting to accommodate a third party who had not been directly invited. She said: “The minister got involved. I don’t think the individual knew what the terms and conditions were and I don’t think the minister recognised the fact that he or she had no business dipping into the committee’s business.

“Any member of the House who is not a member of the committee should not interfere with the committee in any way, shape or form. They should not question witnesses in any way during the committee’s deliberations.

“I had to tell the minister they were treading on very thin ice and that I did not expect to hear of any correspondence between them and my committee or my committee and them.”

According to Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin, there were two instances of attempted interference by two separate ministers in the later stages of the Bermuda College investigation. She said: “I felt I had to highlight the fact that ministers need to keep out of the PAC. As chairperson of the committee, I will speak with ministers if they wish to ask me questions about proceedings or protocol, I have no difficulty with that, but when a minister takes it upon himself or herself to determine they can dictate how the committee operates then we have to put our feet down.”

And Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin added: “The comment was to address all ministers to show what is appropriate for them and what is not appropriate.”

Minister was on ‘thin ice’