A lease for Coco Reef was renegotiated without being tabled in the House of Assembly and Education Minister El James refused to answer why.

This is according to Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons who spoke in the House during the motion to adjourn yesterday.

Dr. Gibbons said the Government-owed property had its lease extended from 21 years to 50 years and again to 120 years.

And in order for this to happen, it would require permission from the Minister of Education.

The original lease took place in 2003 and Dr. Gibbons questioned how that was approved by the Minister of the day.

"I am asking these questions not only to the Minister of Education now but also to the Minister of Education at the time who would have had to approve that lease at the time, Paula Cox.

"I don't know if it was her per se. Whoever the Minister was at the time had to approve it and the Minister of the day would have had to had to approve it as well. Was that lease given without proper authority? It's very clear that nothing over 21 years can be given, authorised of leased without the approval of this honourable House."

But Ms Cox denied being the Education Minister at the time and said: "I think if honourable members are going to come here and make allegations they need to have their facts straight. Don't say the Minister of Education in 2002/2003 was Paula Cox when she wasn't."

Ms Cox was in fact the Education Minister during that time.

Dr. Gibbons said the negotiations were mentioned in the Bermuda College's annual report by Chairman Walton Brown which resulted in parliamentary questions being sent to Mr. James about the lease.

"It was a pretty straight forward series of questions but the one that was of interest was when was the lease going to be tabled in the House.

"We were rather stunned to hear back through the House office that the Minister declined to answer the questions because the college was its own entity and it was no business of the House to overseas any lease of the college. We were certainly rather surprised to find that this House had no jurisdiction as to what the college did with respect to the property."

He continued: "Refusal obviously raised a number of questions in our minds. What is it that the Minister of Education and the Government are trying to hide? We were obviously very interested to get an understanding of what was going on.

"It was very interesting because when the lease was signed, it was signed not necessarily on behalf of the Bermuda College but it says Bermuda College acting on behalf of the Government."

Dr. Gibbons said there were issues raised in the Auditor General's special report in 2004 about the controversy.

"It is not John Jeffries or the Coco Reef that I am after. It's the Government and what Government has done. The Bermuda Government not only in 2003 but more recently was able to provide a lease because that's what the lease actually says.

"With what authority was a lease given to Coco Reef for 21 years without that lease coming back to the house? When the lease was originally negotiated back in 2003, the original lease specified 21 years. The lease that was actually signed specified a term of 50 years.

"What's interesting is that the board of governors didn't approve of this. It was not seen by the college board but more interestingly the final lease was never run past the AG Chambers."

Dr. Gibbons said in 2006, Works and Engineering was given permission through a law in the House to make leases for more than 21 years.

"The questions being raised in our minds after we heard the 50 year lease was extended to 120 years, how is Bermuda College about to provide a lease to a private company and under what authority was Government able to provide a lease which is 21 years?"

He also suggested the deeds to the property were held by Works and Engineering but he doesn't know if that is a fact.

9 Beaches is one of two hotels on Government-owned property; the other is Coco Reef Resort on the South Shore in Warwick. The lease for the 17-acre Sandys property will be made public once it is signed — a move expected to happen within the next two months.