Opposition Leader Dr. Grant Gibbons yesterday accused Premier Alex Scott of misleading Bermudians when he claimed almost all arrears in the Contributory Pension Fund were run up under the United Bermuda Party.

He said the number of delinquent companies not paying into the fund went up under the Progressive Labour Party, and said former Attorney General, Dame Lois Browne Evans, refused to take legal action against them.

He spoke out after the Premier said the UBP was “tiresome” in attacking Government over a retroactive pension increase of three percent, which he said seniors should receive before Christmas.

“What's really tiresome is Premier Scott's habit of not painting a complete picture,” said Dr. Gibbons yesterday.

“He is only too happy to communicate information that suits his political purpose, but unfortunately the selective facts he provided yesterday about Bermuda's contributory pension plan are misleading if allowed to stand on their own.

“Premier Scott refers to $10.6 million of past-due pension contributions that the PLP government inherited from the former UBP government in 1998, yet he fails to mention that this situation worsened under the PLP government.

“In fact, the Auditor General reveals in his recent Annual Report that between 2001 and 2002, past-due pension contributions grew dramatically, by almost 20 percent.

“A careful study of the delinquent contributors on the Auditor's name-and-shame list for 2002 shows that more than half of the amounts outstanding are new since 2000 and occurred under the PLP government.

“This clearly contradicts Mr. Scott's claim that ‘almost all of the arrears in the Fund were built up during the previous UBP administrations'.

“Premier Scott also fails to mention that any delinquent amounts successfully collected by the Social Insurance department through legal action received no assistance from the PLP's political Attorney General, even when requested.

“In his report, the Auditor General notes that the former Director of Social Insurance gave up sending debts to the AG's chambers some two years ago due to her frustration at their failure to initiate legal action when requested.

“In fact, in 2000 former Solicitor General William Pearce informed the Public Accounts Committee that the Attorney General's position was that chambers was not in the business of debt collection for the government and that she had major reservations about government lawyers being actively involved in debt collection.

“The Auditor General states that in his view the inaction of the AG's chambers in prosecuting for recovery of Government debts has contributed hugely to the increasing amounts of past-due debts and the growing public belief that amounts owed to Government need not be paid or paid promptly.

“These facts certainly fly in the face of Premier Scott's claim that ‘since coming into office in November 1998, the PLP Government has taken steps to strengthen the collection of contributions to the Pension Fund'.

“Premier Scott also claims that due to a PLP change in the Fund's investment strategy, the Fund's market valuation in November 2003 is “some $100 million higher than at the same time last year.

“While the increase may be accurate, these numbers have not been audited nor previously released. However, not surprisingly, Premier Scott fails to mention the huge drop - over $114 million - in asset value of the investments the year before.

“This substantial decrease in the fair value of the investments is clearly indicated on the most recently released audited statements of the Contributory Pension Fund for 2001, which were just tabled in Parliament.”