The Opposition party yesterday repeated its call for heads to roll over the Bermuda Housing Corporation scandal, saying Premier Alex Scott had resorted to scapegoating in the wake of the closure of the investigation.

And Shadow Housing Minister Wayne Furbert categorically denied Mr. Scott's assertion that a culture of mismanagement and corruption pervaded the quango under the United Bermuda Party government.

He described Mr. Scott as "one of the greatest spin doctors in Bermuda when it comes to politics" who was always on the lookout for scapegoats.

"For six years every time something goes wrong, they've always tried to fall back and say the UBP did this or the UBP did that... They have refused to take responsibility for their own action."

Mr. Furbert was Housing Minister for about five months before the UBP was toppled from power in 1998.

"I don't recall any problems like what the BHC has gone through over the last six years under the PLP administration. We left policies and procedures in place for the PLP Government to follow. And I remember (former BHC manager) Ed Cowen saying that he tried to talk to the Government about policies but that they did not want to listen. And that is what I think went wrong. With no controls in place then it was all up for grabs."

Last year Mr. Cowen told Hamilton Rotarians that all was well with the quango until the PLP became Government and replaced its management.

A two year investigation into charges of corruption and massive overpayments was formally closed last week with the announcement that no criminal charges will be filed against any elected officials.

And the Police Commissioner and the former Director of Public Prosecutions described some activities as "unethical".

Mr. Scott has accepted the need to update the law but dismissed calls for resignations, saying that he would not act on "rumour and innuendo".

Mr. Furbert said that there was a fine line between crime and unethical activities and wondered what had happened to former Housing Minister David Burch's threats to name BHC wrongdoers.

"There's a fine line because the only reason why it's not criminal is because there is no particular law to deal with that particular issue... If he admits they were unethical and there was some criminality behind it then the Premier should disclose what took place and who were the people involved. And if what the Premier said has accepted that there is a thin line between unethical and criminal then he should ask them to resign immediately because of the unacceptable behaviour admitted by the Auditor the DPP, Commissioner and now the Premier."

Some PLP supporters have defended the Premier's stance saying that the country must abide by the rule of law.

And, it has been argued, that until the country agrees to enshrine certain ethical principles into law, then the UBP is wrong to call for resignations.

Yesterday Mr. Furbert agreed that ethical behaviour was relative. "We do have the rule of law. We accept that," he said. "But the Commissioner and the DPP have ruled in this way but if the issues are ruled to be unethical then they should resign. What may be unethical to me may not be unethical to you. So my point is the Premier should disclose what took place and let the people judge what should be done. It was so strongly unethical that the DPP said that there should be some laws put in place to make these things criminal."

Mr. Scott has said that he is not privy to the Police investigation report, but Mr. Furbert said that as a leader of the country he has a right to know.