Former Bermuda Land Development Company chairman Ed Saunders says Premier Paula Cox should apologise to him and former deputy chairman Leroy Bean for her “presumption of guilt” over the Auditor General’s conflict of interest allegations.Mr Saunders makes the statement in his submission to the Public Accounts Committee, which grilled Mr Saunders and Mr Bean over the $160,000 consultancy arrangement they had with the company while they were directors, which was deemed a “fundamental conflict of interest” by the Auditor General.The pair have argued they did nothing wrong and that their actions were permitted by the BLDC’s by-laws and did not breach the Companies Act.Mr Saunders said the Premier who, as Minister of Finance, is a shareholder of the company, had made a “hasty assumption” that the two “had committed an offence” and commissioned accounting firm KPMG to carry out an internal audit.“KPMG’s conclusion as written on April 18, 2011 was the complete exoneration of the chairman and deputy chairman as the by-laws and the Companies Act 1981 were adhered to,” he said.“The second opinion was consistent with that of (law firm) Trott and Duncan that both the by-laws and the Companies Act of 1981 were followed.“There was never an apology or explanation from the Shareholder/Premier/Finance Minister for her presumption of guilt of both the chairman and deputy chairman.”Mr Saunders added that the work they conducted for the company — a review of the company’s operations was “considered necessary as a result of grave concerns held by the Deputy Premier/ Minister of Public Works (Derrick Burgess)”.And the review “uncovered serious lapses in efficiency and accountability and potential abuse of power”, he said.