Tourism director Glenn Bean was out of a job shortly after advertising agency GlobalHue wrote a damning letter to Premier Ewart Brown labelling Mr. Bean "incompetent".

"What's really scary about this guy is he thinks he's doing a fantastic job," stated the firm in a written attack on Mr. Bean said to continue for three or four pages.

GlobalHue also complained Mr. Bean was making it very difficult for it to do its job before his position was terminated in November 2007.

Auditor General Heather Jacobs Matthews read the excerpts during yesterday's first open meeting of the Public Accounts Committee, when the Department of Tourism's relationship with GlobalHue came under the spotlight.

United Bermuda Party MPs Bob Richards and Patricia Gordon-Pamplin asked Tourism officials numerous questions about how GlobalHue — reportedly run by the Premier's longtime friend Don Coleman — was awarded a $28 million contract without anyone else having the chance to bid last year.

Former Auditor General Larry Dennis has stated Mr. Bean left his post shortly after he began highlighting GlobalHue's failure to ask for copies of media vendors' invoices — a practice which received heavy criticism when it later came to light.

Mr. Bean was given a severance package of $440,000, far higher than anyone else who left the North American Tourism Offices in a four-year period around that time.

When Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin mentioned Mr. Bean's termination yesterday, Assistant Tourism Director Jasmine Smith replied that GlobalHue was not displeased with his work, adding: "He did the job that would have been expected from him."

Mrs. Jacobs Matthews then cut in: "That remark Ms Smith made does not stand up to scrutiny."

The Auditor General began reading GlobalHue's letter to the Premier, which she said criticised Mr. Bean for three or four pages.

Asked for a comment about the letter last night, Dr. Brown replied: "One of the reasons I supported the public meeting of this committee was to allow the Bermudian public to see what happens when a black-owned company secures a coveted contract from the Bermuda Government.

"GlobalHue has conducted business just as other advertising agencies have done over the past 25 years.

"This is clear evidence that some people think there should be special rules for black people who dare to do business at higher levels."

Yesterday's meeting in the Senate Chamber attracted a crowd of about 15 people, including several journalists, MP Terry Lister, Minister Zane DeSilva, and Hamilton Mayor Charles Gosling.

The PAC was opened up after years of criticism that the five MPs should not meet in secret when they discuss how public money is being spent.

The main debate surrounded how GlobalHue first got the advertising contract in 2006, and then renewed it in 2009, without it being put out to tender.

This did no break any rules, but Mrs. Jacobs Matthews called for financial instructions to be tightened so that multimillion dollar contracts must be put out to tender.

"Financial instructions should be beefed up," she told this newspaper afterwards. "When you've got a substantial contract of $30 million or $50 million, there's no way that should not be put out to tender."

Early last year, GlobalHue received fierce criticism when it emerged it had used a media buyer, Cornerstone Media, whose commissions had run as high as 181 percent. Mr. Dennis said that is way above the industry norm and meant taxpayers spent $1.8 million in overpayments in 2008.

According to the auditor, senior Tourism officials did not find out about this practice for more than two years because they didn't obtain media vendor invoices from Cornerstone.

Asked why the GlobalHue contract was renewed in spite of such difficulties, Tourism Director Billy Griffith said: "We had corrected a lot of challenges with the accounting."

He added that Tourism decided to stick with the same company because of the economic crisis, that air arrivals had gone up between 2005 and 2007, and that the department was pleased with GlobalHue's creative output.

PAC chairman Mr. Richards argued many advertising firms in the US were struggling in the financial climate, and would have been queuing up to come to Bermuda.

"It seems to be inexplicable to me why you didn't use one of them," he said. "You could have had the best advertising brains in the entire Madison Avenue. Why wasn't that done in the first place, instead of going with your old buddy?"

Mr. Griffith said the decision was vindicated because tourism has improved in the past 12 months and good figures are expected to be released soon.

As the conversation turned to Cornerstone, Mr. Richards asked whether the Department knew work was being subcontracted out.

Ms Smith replied: "We were not aware of a relationship of that extend between GlobalHue and Cornerstone."

Mrs. Jacobs Matthews later told this newspaper: "Senior Tourism officials authorised payments to GlobalHue over at least two years without obtaining media vendor invoices from Cornerstone — invoices that would have allowed Tourism to quickly determine the unusually high markups that were paid to Cornerstone.

"All Tourism requests for these invoices were denied because GlobalHue stated 'that it was their business'.

"Despite GlobalHue's comments, supporting invoices are required to be provided by financial instructions and Tourism officials should have demanded that they be received before payment. Invoices were only received in 2008 when the Auditor General demanded them under threat of a qualified audit opinion."

Cornerstone is no longer involved in the process.

After the meeting, Progressive Labour Party MP Walter Lister, who sits on the committee, said: "The issue raised about contractors is an interesting one.

"Once we have a contract with a particular group, GlobalHue or anyone else, we have a right to know who the subcontractors are, but we don't always need to know, providing the contractor who we are dealing with is satisfactory and doing the job that is required of him."