Letting in the small contractor that was supposed to be the ethos behind the management structure chosen for the Police/Court building but sometimes work was kept amongst a tight circle of insiders.

The Royal Gazette understands some early work on the controversial project on the corner of Court and Church Streets was given by Landmark Lisgar to Bermuda Steel Company Ltd. two companies with many of the same players.

An inspection of the Bermuda Steel Company share register shows that original Landmark bosses Edmund Lee Matvey and Bryan McLeod each held 3,000 shares in Bermuda Steel Company when it was set up in June 2007 just before the Police/Court project began.

The other two listed shareholders were Vincent Hollinsid, who is the Fire Chief and the Premier's half brother and Winters Burgess, who later became vice president of LLC Bermuda, the latest incarnation of the Police/court builders, in December, 2008.

Mr. Hollinsid is listed as president of Bermuda Steel Company while Mr. Matvey is listed as vice president while Mr. McLeod and Mr. Burgess are listed as directors.

At least three wire payments from Landmark Lisgar to Bermuda Steel Company were made in February and March 2008, totalling $126,000. Two were made on the same day in February for $40,000 and $56,000 while another was made for $30,000 a month later.

Whether handing out high value work to companies almost indistinguishable to the construction managers was what was really envisaged when Government set up the contract is open for question.

At the press conference to announce the project, shortly before the 2007 General Election, then Works and Engineering Minister Dennis Lister explained that rather than having one huge firm run the project Government chose what it termed a "construction management approach" to this project.

Landmark Lisgar would be responsible for the construction works and management of the construction schedule, the sub-contractors, the construction site and the final construction product.

He added that: "Landmark Lisgar will also be responsible for engaging all of the sub-contractors required for the project and we are confident that through this process Government's efforts to ensure that contractors who previously had been unable to obtain Government contracts will now be able to do so.

"As a result, the benefits of this project will be shared by more Bermudians than has previously been the case."