The United Bermuda Party said Government?s failure to get a Bermudian trained up as the next Commissioner of Prisons was a ?crime?.

And Shadow Home Affairs Minister Maxwell Burgess accused the Progressive Labour Party of having a bias against black males because of the number of them who have left top civil service posts under the PLP.

But the charge was dismissed as ?erroneous? by Labour and Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton, who said the PLP was a strong supporter of black males.

Mr. Burgess went on the attack in the House of Assembly on Friday after a Government-appointed committee recommended sacking controversial Jamaican Commissioner of Prisons John Prescod and his Bermudian deputies Randall Woolridge and Marvin Trott.

The ?crime? wasn?t that neither Mr. Trott nor Mr. Woolridge will succeed Mr. Prescod, it ?is four years and there is still not someone somewhere training for that?, said Mr. Burgess.

?The PLP promised to put Bermudians first and to tell me that the search and completion of the search hasn?t happened is a real crime.?

Reeling off a list of black Bermudian men who have left or failed to get top civil service posts, he asked: ?What is it about the PLP and black males? You can?t have Government doing a hatchet job on black males and wonder why they are doing machete jobs at Wellington Oval.

?Someone tell me what is in the water that is served to black males that is different to the rest of the population.

?It is not right and it is not fair when you check the track record and to tell me that the PLP would have that legacy hanging over their heads is nothing short of a shame.?

Mr. Horton hit back by producing a long list of black Bermudian men who had got top civil service jobs under the PLP.

?It is erroneous for Maxwell Burgess to say that this Government does not support black males, because certainly we do,? he said.