Department for outside consultants in deciding how to use the American Base lands.

Advertisements for planning help which began appearing in The Royal Gazette last week make no mention of Government's Planning Department, which has a 1994-95 budget of nearly $2 million.

The department has a five-person forward planning section, charged with preparing development plans like the Island-wide Bermuda Plan and the City of Hamilton Plan. With work on the Bermuda Plan 1992 nearly completed, the forward planning section is between major projects.

Government's recently-advertised request for planning proposals calls for a prime consultant, open to local or foreign firms, and sub-consultants, which must be local firms only.

While the prime consultant is to show experience in projects including "military bases, economic development, economic analysis, market research, project management, production of data and development plans'', the sub-consultant is to "work under the auspices of the prime consultants'', and provide "local knowledge, technical engineering and design skills and other relevant experience to support the prime''.

Officials in Planning will not comment publicly, but it is understood there is unhappiness in the department over a perceived lack of involvement at the Bases.

"In my opinion, it would be inappropriate to comment,'' said Planning Director Mr. Brian Rowlinson when contacted by The Royal Gazette . "I would refer you to the Bases transition office.'' Management and Technology Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons, the main Cabinet Minister handling the Bases takeover, said the Planning Department, and forward planning in particular, would be "an integral part of the whole planning process''.

That is spelled out in request for proposal documents which the ads invite interested bidders to pick up, Dr. Gibbons said.

Mr. Peter Adwick, assistant director of forward planning, is a member of the Bases transition coordination team and sits on Government's Bases utilisation committee, Dr. Gibbons said. He will also chair the steering committee that communicates with the prime consultant on a day-to-day basis, he added.

"Forward planning will play a major role,'' providing a certain degree of co-ordination and reviewing all plans, he said.

Government and the utilisation committee wanted "fairly broad input'', Dr.

Gibbons said. They also wanted to maximise local input, from both the public and private sectors.

"Usually the complaint is that you bring in a foreign expert and they take six months to sort of figure out where the east end is and where the west end is, and everyone has to tell them what's what,'' he said.

"If we end up with a prime consultant which is a non-Bermudian firm, then we want to put this consortium together which will have direct input from both forward planning and also the private sector.'' Dr. Gibbons was asked whether politics were a consideration, and whether Government felt that if it hired an overseas planning consultant it had to hire local consultants, despite the fact the Planning Department could provide the same expertise as local consultants.

"That's possible,'' he said. "But I think sometimes the private sector can bring a certain perspective that you may not necessarily get within a planning department.'' A professional planner who did not wish to be identified said the consultants would cost Government at least $250,000. Dr. Gibbons, who hopes to have consultants in place by the end of November and a master plan for the Bases completed early next year, said he could not comment on that figure until the bids came in.

Mr. Erwin Adderley, who recently retired as Government's planning director and now works as a private planning consultant, said he did not wish to enter the fray.

"I'm aware of the fact that in the mid to late '70s, when we had a similar situation with Dockyard, which is a much smaller area, Planning brought in a consultant who worked with us in producing the Dockyard local plan,'' Mr.

Adderley said.

"Most of the work that was done on the Dockyard plan was done by people outside of the department, working under the guidance and direction of people inside of the department.'' He felt that arrangement worked well. "Dockyard is a success.''