Government is to pay the contractors of the new Berkeley Institute a cash premium for every Bermudian they employ on the site.

In a bold move to get more Bermudian workers involved in the $70 million project, Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott said the cash for locals scheme was to be seen as an incentive, instead of the punitive measures used in the past.

And although no decision has yet been made as to which one of the five bidders will develop the new Government school, he said a ballpark figure had already been set aside to fund the incentive scheme.

Mr. Scott said the contractor will have to come to an agreement with Government over the hiring initiative, and the monetary incentive, before the deal is signed.

But if it is agreed, he said it would certainly put additional money in the pockets of the employers. The workers will receive nothing extra.

The Minister refused to say how much cash had been made available for the incentive, or how much the employers would be paid per Bermudian.

That would all become clearer, he said, when a press conference is held later this month to announce the contractor and explain the "special innovations''.

He added: "Simply stated, we are putting a premium on every Bermudian hired for that site. It is a monetary incentive.

"It will be advantageous for the general contractor, sub contractor and sub sub contractors to utilise Bermudians.

"It will impact on their bottom line if they hire Bermudians.'' Mr. Scott said the scheme was going to be monitored by Government, including Labour Minister Paula Cox, and if successful could be used more widely.

He said the thrust of the cash for locals project was to get Bermudians involved in the work and to keep more dollars on the Island.

He said money earned by non-Bermudian workers often went off the Island.

But Mr. Scott said it would be premature and presumptuous of him to say how the cash incentive would be paid, such as on a weekly, monthly or lump sum basis, because the contractors themselves would be responsible for administering it.

But he said a register would be kept of everyone who had worked on the site and their skills, so statistical manpower data could be stored and used for future projects.

The companies targeted by the scheme, said the Minister, were those "who have a habit of importing people''.

And Mr. Scott said he realised Bermuda did not have an unemployment problem.

But he said when CedarBridge Academy was built in the mid 90s, "hundreds'' of Bermudians complained to the Progressive Labour Party that they were being overlooked because of people working on the site from overseas.

The Minister added: "Now there will be an incentive to use Bermudians, as opposed to bringing people in.

"In the past there were punitive methods, such as using immigration. This is more of a pro-active incentive.'' However, last night fellow Government MP and union leader Derrick Burgess said he believed the cash for locals was the wrong path to take.

Money for Bermudians The President of the Bermuda Industrial Union said: "I think this is not the right way to go simply because the only people who are going to make the money are the employers. The money is not going to trickle down to the workers. The thing is, we, as a union, believe in quality. We just don't want to hire anybody just for the sake of hiring them. We could end up with ten people on the job that don't know what they are doing. All we will be doing is throwing money away.'' But Mr. Scott said he did not believe the scheme would lead to poor quality workmanship.

And he said he did not think the contractors would hire Bermudians incapable of the job just to gain financial rewards.

He said: "They will hire quality people.

"The work must be delivered on time. There will be penalties if it is not.

"I am sure the contractors and sub-contractors will put the best people on the job. They will be looking for quality.'' The new state-of-the-art public school is being built opposite the present Berkeley Institute site on Berkeley Hill in Pembroke.

The successful bidder is to be announced within the next couple of weeks, and work on the job is expected to begin as early as April 1.

The contractors will have a two-year deadline to meet in order to hand the school over to the Ministry of Education in April 2003.

Then extra work will be carried out so the school will be ready for opening in September that year.