The Planning Department was to blame for much of the overrun on the Dockyard pier project, Premier Ewart Brown claimed at Monday night's media roundtable event.

And Dr. Brown said the pregnant dolphins — which cost taxpayers an extra $3.7 million to protect as the price for the initiative soared from $35 million to $60 million — should have been sent back to Chicago.

The Premier told the audience at the Berkeley Cafeterium: "I think we need to be more efficient, there is no question about it. Now let me tell you how projects grow from $46 million to $60 million, and this occurred to me the other day.

"One of the reasons for the overrun in Dockyard was internal to the Government. We give ourselves so much grief internally that we are a cost centre to our own projects.

"When we spent all that money on pregnant dolphins, to me it was an unnecessary expense. I told them send the dolphins back to Chicago — don't spend that kind of money on dolphins.

"But what we do, and I blame this on the British for leaving us like this, it's a sort of governance where people prey on each other and create these power centres and cause grief.

"The Planning Department, I hate to say, was the cause of much of the overrun expenditure at Dockyard. There's no question we stand in our own way and we stumble over ourselves when we do projects. I don't have to tell Bermudians, they know, they try to build a one room addition to their house and the amount of grief you get. It's like TCD used to be."

He was speaking after the Bermuda Sun referred to new Auditor General Heather Jacobs Matthews' highlighting of gaps in accountability over Government finances.

The Sun pointed out Mrs. Jacobs Matthews said financial instructions were not followed and that for some capital projects, only 59 cents for every dollar is realised by way of a tangible asset.

Asked by the Sun if he should have been a strong leader by ordering the dolphins to be sent back, Dr. Brown said: "I didn't want to overrule the civil servants at the time and I had no idea it was going to grow into that kind of bill. I don't like cost overruns on my house and my money.

"So surely I don't like it when it's the public purse. I do think we can be more efficient I accept that — that's why we created our own internal audit so long before these things get to the Auditor General they will get to our own internal auditor and we can start picking up on these things.

"I don't think that the Government is very efficient. I think sometimes we hire three people to handle a door — one to open it, one to hold it and one to close it.

"I think we need to get away from that mindset and be more efficient and let me tell you and this is aimed directly at the unions — sometimes when you want to make it more efficient that's where the resistance comes from. Sometimes when you want to push people to perform at a higher level — that's where the resistance comes from."