The Opposition has taken issue with comments from the PLP praising work on a controversial Dockyard project.Addressing the party’s annual conference last week, deputy leader Derrick Burgess boasted that Government built a $60 million cruise ship dock and it paid for itself in three years.“And guess who built it? A born Bermudian, member of the PLP. Dennis Correia,” said Mr Burgess, who went on to say Mr Correia surpassed expectations by building the dock in 18 months although foreign contractors had said it could only be done in 24 months.He had also saved the Government $1.2 million on building the fast ferry docks.Shadow Minister of Transport Pat Gordon Pamplin said in response: “We have no way of knowing whether Mr Burgess’s assertions are true or not — he must be quoting from Government figures which have not been made public. However, we do know that the Dockyard Heritage Wharf project was estimated at $35 million, and ended up costing the taxpayer about 70 percent more than that — $60 million.“The contractor, Mr Correia, whom Mr Burgess praises for having saved money on the fast ferry docks, said publicly at the time that hundreds of Government changes and additions to the plans caused the cost to spiral upwards. Those changes and additions — which even amateur builders know to avoid because they are punitively expensive — would have been directed by the Minister of Tourism and Transport.“Had they been done correctly, the now Minister of Works and Engineering would not have had to explain why an additional $4 million for a thruster wall was money down the drain, because it was damaged in a hurricane and had to be removed, at the cost of an additional $500,000 of taxpayer’s money. Indeed, the King’s Wharf project is one reason the OBA will create an independent Contractor General to oversee Government construction projects to ensure fairness, enforce rules and eliminate wasteful cost overruns.”The thruster wall at the pier was scrapped instead of repaired after being damaged in Hurricane Igor in September 2010.Public Works Minister Michael Weeks said Government would foot the bill as taking down the wall for an estimated $150,000 to $175,000 would be cheaper than repairing it. He said he expected further monitoring to show that the structure, which was originally put in place to protect the surrounding environment from silt churned up by ships, might not have been required in the first place.He added that a Government investigation did not find fault with the quality of work done by Correia Construction when building it.