Government has renewed a private company’s contentious contract to carry out emissions testing on all vehicles — despite having yet to legislate on acceptable levels of air pollution.

Bermuda Emissions Control Ltd (BECL) was awarded a five-year multimillion dollar contract to carry out safety and emissions testing in 2009, without the project going out to tender.

The agreement was heavily criticised by the Opposition, with then Shadow Minister Bob Richards claiming it was awarded because the business was part-owned by Donal Smith, a cousin of then Premier Ewart Brown.

But the One Bermuda Alliance Government is now understood to have extended the same contract for another 12 months after it expired earlier this year. It was previously reported that the contract was worth $2.4 million a year.

And though the company tests every vehicle on the Island annually, there are still no emission controls in place, making it impossible to fail the test.

Former BECL general manager Ian Hind told The Royal Gazette: “It’s a fact of life that Government have yet to legislate the new standards. It’s still the case — it’s common knowledge.

“We created all these standards and passed it to Government, I’m guessing, in February or March, 2010. I know that [then Ministry of Transport permanent secretary] Randy Rochester then drafted a paper to go forward for approval.

“I think he then got moved and, to cut a long story short, that paper has gone from pillar to post, up and down. It’s gone to legal people and back again. Still to this day, it has not been legislated.”

Testing was introduced, according to Government, to help the environment by cutting down on vehicle emissions which cause greenhouse gases.

Mr Hind said the initial plan was to set an emissions standard for Bermuda in line with other jurisdictions.

But it became clear prior to April, 2009 that doing so would bring the Island to a “crashing halt” because the majority of vehicles would fail the test.

Instead, it was agreed that BECL would gather data for a year at its three testing centres and figure out a realistic standard for Bermuda, where between ten to 15 percent of vehicles would fail.

Mr Hind said those recommendations were shared more than four years ago and nothing has happened since.

Yet Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy, when in Opposition, claimed it was “very important for Bermuda’s environment and indeed public health for there to be proper emission controls”.

He said in August, 2012: “So let’s get on with it! Enough of the delay.”

Mr Hind said: “The whole point was that it should be legislated.”

He added that the testing being done was still worthwhile as motorists were told the emission level for their vehicle and whether it would pass or fail, if such controls were in place.

“A lot of the public will say ‘have I passed or failed?’ and we say ‘here is your actual result’. We are educating the public. BECL is also not just doing the emissions but also the safety inspection.

“Having tracked and kept detailed records of the [theoretical] pass and fail rate, we can see things improving. If your vehicle is operating poorly like that, it means something else is wrong. Most people are quite interested and we tell them what to do to fix it.”

Civil servant Magnus Henagulph, in his winning submission to the SAGE Commission last year, recommended that the Transport Control Department end its contract with BECL.

He wrote: “Testing is useless anyway as no limit will be set for emissions as this would mean ten percent of cars would fail without very expensive fixes. This would lead to a public backlash.”

Mr Henagulph proposed closing the testing facilities in St David’s and Southampton and moving all equipment and staff to the central TCD facility in Hamilton.

BECL, which is owned by City of Hamilton Deputy Mayor Mr Smith, construction boss Dennis Correia and Joel Madeiros, was awarded the contract to build the Island’s three vehicle testing centres.

The publicly-funded project eventually ran $10 million over-budget, leading to scathing criticism from the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee.

Last night a Transport Ministry spokesman confirmed that there are no emission limits in place.

“However, vehicles can be failed for excessive smoke and ten vehicles failed their inspection for this reason in March, 2014,” the spokesman said.

“Setting emissions limits is also something the Ministry is continuing to review and will move forward with at the appropriate time. Concerning the contract with Bermuda Emissions Control Limited to carry out vehicle inspections, there is a clause for an optional renewal and the Government is in the process of reviewing that option.”

It was not possible to reach Mr Smith or Mr Correia yesterday and Mr Madeiros was off Island.