Opposition MP Maxwell Burgess has accused Government of repeatedly trying to suppress the truth over Harbourside Village and called for the Premier and Housing Minister to resign.

Mr. Burgess had first claimed in the House of Assembly on February 25 that the Bermuda Homes for People project was in deep trouble and talks had taken place with Bermuda Land Development Company to take over the project.

He further claimed it would be behind schedule and over budget and he challenged Government to commit to saying otherwise.

However both Premier Alex Scott and Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent refused to be drawn and challenged Mr. Burgess to produce facts. The following week Bermuda Homes for People spokeswoman Aideen Ratteray-Pryse also said she was unaware of what Mr. Burgess was referring to and she pledged Bermuda Homes for People would develop Harbourside Village. On Friday night Mr. Burgess went further and revealed the project was technically insolvent and the principal person behind it had walked away and was demanding a $730,000 pay-off.

Premier Alex Scott accused Mr. Burgess of putting out rumour and challenged him to confirm the claims. However Mr. Burgess challenged Mr. Scott to deny the story.

When Mr. Scott again said Mr. Burgess was putting out innuendo Mr. Burgess produced the KPMG report with a flourish and said: “There's the proof right here.”

He ignored requests by the Government and Speaker to table the document for the House to debate later and said he would give it to The Royal Gazette.

Yesterday Mr. Burgess said he had gone this route because tabling it can allow Government to suppress debate for months until they finally set time to debate it.

“The report risked becoming part of the Government censorship programme,” said Mr. Burgess.

He questioned why Government could hold a Press conference on Sunday morning admitting something they were not prepared to confirm on Friday night.

Now all of a sudden talks were well advanced with BLDC said Mr. Burgess. “When did they do that? On Saturday morning?

“If I didn't have the report it was the intention of the Premier to have the country believe what I said wasn't true.”

The report shows that Government had been in contact with KPMG as early as January.

If Government had admitted there were problems and had promised a response Mr. Burgess said he would have not pushed the matter further but the PLP's insistence on challenging his integrity had pushed him to make the report public.

He said the Government pushed out the truth on a “need-to-know basis” and the Premier and Housing Minster should resign.