The Commission of Inquiry has rejected Derrick Burgess’s claim that he was not aware his cousin, Winters Burgess, and Ewart Brown’s half-brother, Vincent Hollinsid, were principals of the firm tasked with constructing the Dame Lois Browne-Evans building.

The panel also said the level of compensation for providing collateral by Winters Burgess and Mr Hollinsid appeared “on its face to be excessive”.

The report states: “Commission estimates suggest that if the project lasted for approximately 30 months with a $6 million profit they would have received $300,000 and $180,000 respectively in salaries and $1.32 million and $1.2 million in profit margin respectively in return for provision of collateral (home equity) valued at approximately $1.6 million but no actual cash outlay.”

The project, which involved an initial contract with Landmark Lisgar under Dennis Lister’s tenure as Minister of Works and Engineering and a second agreement with LLC under Mr Burgess’s tenure as minister, cost $89 million — $17 million over budget.

The commission said Mr Lister had failed to disclose to Cabinet the technical officer’s recommendation to award the contract to Apex rather than Landmark Lisgar.

Meanwhile, the second LLC contract was not submitted by Mr Burgess or his permanent secretary, Robert Horton, for approval by the Cabinet, “nor were principals disclosed as required”.

The tribunal found evidence of “possible criminal activity” relating to the second contract, but not the first, and said it could not agree on “whether Dr Brown should also be investigated”.

Mr Burgess told the Commission that he was not aware that either Winters Burgess of Mr Hollinsid were principals at LLC.

• On occasion The Royal Gazette may decide to not allow comments on a story that we deem might inflame sensitivities. As we are legally liable for any slanderous or defamatory comments made on our website, this move is for our protection as well as that of our readers.