Opposition MP Michael Dunkley fears work on the second senior school could be further delayed now it is in the hands of Government.

On Friday Acting Premier Paula Cox said Somers Construction, which had been tipped to take over the project, would not be given the lead role.

But Mr. Dunkley said it was wrong for Works and Engineering to be running the site after Government sacked Pro-Active for being too slow.

He said: "Works and Engineering has a tremendous amount of responsibilities from day to day. We are talking about a very large construction site.

"If you say you are going to run it and run it effectively you put in proper management."

He said Works and Engineering was not set up to run large building sites.

"Are they going to come up to scratch?," he asked.

And he fears work might be further delayed but he said getting an established building firm to run the site might be difficult.

"Construction is overheated at the moment. If you give it to someone qualified you are probably going to pay premium prices for it.

"Government has made this bed and Bermudians have to lie in it because of the decision made in the beginning. It isn't a very positive looking situation.

"We can look forward to the same scenario as in the past. Government will give piecemeal information to the public when it is forced to and we won't see any improvement for some time."

And he chided Acting Premier Paula Cox for predicting the school would be open in September 2005 when the independent consultants had yet to do a site visit and give their progress report.

However Works and Engineering Minister Ashfield DeVent said it was normal for the owners to have a huge say in a project.

"To all intents and purposes we have been in charge on site anyway," he said, adding that the September 2005 finish was still Government's intention.

Mr. Dunkley said the Opposition had raised concerns about Pro-Active long ago and been chided by Government, including Premier Alex Scott who had likened them to "fools and children".

Then out of the blue Cabinet decided to axe the company which their civil servants had expressed fears about, said Mr. Dunkley.

Mr. DeVent said he understood Pro-Active had come up with the most responsive tender at the time.

"They were chosen on merit."

He said one of the companies, BermudaTech, had since gone bust after starting the Spice Valley project.

"Huge projects have a potential to take construction companies down."

The construction industry was fraught with uncertainty by its very nature said Mr. DeVent.

"It doesn't take much to unbalance a whole project. With huge buildings in other parts of the world the same things happen."

Pro-Active had suffered problems getting a flow of cash said Mr. DeVent, a problem which Government would not allow to happen again.

Mr. Dunkley said the community was terrified of what the eventual bill for the school would come to and said he feared Government would continue to withhold information.

Mr. DeVent replied: "As information becomes available we will provide information. We cannot update when there is nothing to update on."

The school was originally scheduled to be completed in September 2003. The contract was originally priced at $68 million but Government had to give Pro-Active another $13 million earlier this year.