Another big Government construction project, another huge controversy.

Critics are already comparing the Police/Court building to the Berkeley debacle where Government over-ruled its technical officers and signed up an unknown firm for a job which eventually came in three years late and $55 million over budget.

The $78 million Police/Court building is behind schedule and mystery surrounds the company doing the work with some shareholders protected by a blind trust. Former Bermuda Sun editor and liberal pundit Tom Vesey said Bermuda is riddled with suspicion, rumour, and general lack of trust and it's especially rife in the area of government contracts.

He added: "There's only one way to overcome it and that's by being completely open."

Government has to be entirely transparent, inconvenient though that is, said Mr. Vesey.

He added: "And if certain contractors, or certain segments of the community, need to be favoured to correct past and current injustices, for the overall good of the construction industry or Bermuda society as a whole, well, let's be honest and open about it."

Contracts should be decided by a government board, based on published criteria said Mr. Vesey with the elected government having the right to establish the criteria.

"If people choose to criticise the criteria used, let them criticise, and then answer them back.

"No Government should be awarding contracts, or doing anything else for that matter, if they aren't prepared to justify it publicly, and be comfortable about doing so.

"And if something goes wrong if the company you choose lets you down or anything else goes haywire just acknowledge it and move on. Things do go wrong, lessons are learned, and we'll try to do better in the future.

"But don't hide it. Our leaders learned that lessons from their mothers, decades ago when they were little children and they should remember it now because it still holds true."

Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said Bermuda should adopt the Australian system where all tenders are advertised on the Ministry of Finance website and once the tender is accepted, the successful tender, with the pertinent facts of the contract are also posted.

Such information can be accessed by competition and assessed for fairness, said Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin.

The actual tenders include an evaluation panel who assess each tender. The tender committee makes its recommendation and the contract is offered. "It's all very open and very transparent."

But she said as long as the government deems that public projects are secretly negotiated, there will be no improvement.

"Parliament can also pass a Freedom of Information Act whereby information can be obtained.

"This should be done in conjunction with a Whistleblowers Act which would protect anyone who has information that needs to be passed on.

"They could also enact legislation to say that any company doing government contracts are not allowed to hide behind trusts for shareholders, and further, progress on all projects should be posted on the web.

"And of course, the Public Accounts Committee should meet in public so that its dealings are current and the public will have the opportunity to input their observations/ideas."

Former Premier Alex Scott, who oversaw the Berkeley project, said construction projects were always fraught with challenges and the end result would be played out in public because private sector jobs did not come under such scrutiny.

"By definition the public projects are supposed to be open and a step by step process reported."

He said people would know that home renovations could become a nightmare.

"Beware of low bids because they bid low and litigate after." The price then grew as reasons were found to squeeze Government for more money.

He said Government's job was more difficult because it tried to spread the wealth around by choosing contractors who had been left out, whereas the private sector had no such concerns.

And he said the United Bermuda Party's record revealed problems in building Westgate and CedarBridge.

"The school may have had the minimum of challenges but the theatre supposedly split in half or sunk, it had to be re-done."

One builder, who spoke to The Royal Gazette said over-runs of two to five percent were typical but those reaching ten percent were exceptional.

However Mr. Scott said that was somewhat naive and over-runs in the UK and US sometimes ran into the billions.

Former independent MP Stuart Hayward said Parliament had an oversight role on Cabinet, but the effectiveness has been diminished by the partisan division.

And he said not enough use is made of parliamentary questions, despite Government's persistent resistance to being quizzed about its dealings.

Mr. Hayward added: "The public should have access to any information that does not rise to the status of threatening national security if divulged. "

In areas where public money is being spent for a product or service the public should have enough information to adequately assess whether they were getting value for money, said Mr. Hayward.

"Government should not be the determiner of the level of adequacy of the information.

"Government should not filter information, but provide what is asked for, and in addition point to relevant information that was not specifically asked for.

"Government should avoid any and every act that obfuscates the facts. In other words there should be full, unquestionable and verifiable transparency."

And he said oversight agencies should have the staff and resources, the authority and the mandate to initiate and complete their jobs, without hindrance of any sort, including threats or intimidation – real or perceived.