Works and Engineering Minister Derrick Burgess last night branded Monday's Royal Gazette story headlined 'Court building project shock' as "false in almost every material respect".

This newspaper stands by the story, which revealed that Canadian partners Lisgar had left the unfinished Police/court job with a substantial cash settlement.

Lisgar had been hired along with local company Landmark to run the project which industry insiders believe is months behind schedule.

Mr. Burgess' statement failed to respond to any of the detailed allegations other than to claim that the article falsely states that the Ministry of Works and Engineering "gave $800,000 to Landmark/Lisgar to provide a performance bond" and that "the bond could not be bought as all the assets underpinning it were in Canada".

He went on to say that both the Ministry of Works and Engineering and the Ministry of Finance took the view that the performance bond, to be acceptable, had to be secured by assets which were deposited or placed in Bermuda.

And he said no payment was ever made by the Bermuda Government in respect of the bond proffered by Landmark/Lisgar through Aviva Insurance Company Inc. of Canada because of that very deficiency.

In November Mr. Burgess said the bond had been provided, adding: "There were difficulties associated with the fact that the funds or assets underpinning this bond were located in Canada rather than Bermuda.

"It didn't satisfy the Finance Department, which wanted the assets to be posted in Bermuda. Not that you couldn't be covered, but if you had an issue you would have to go to the Canadian courts to get it which is rather costly."

So Mr. Burgess said retention funds had been put aside to insure against non-performance or inadequate performance.

"This new arrangement will be in lieu of a performance bond," the Minister stated then.

Missing from yesterday's Government statement was any rebuttal of the claim that Lisgar – who were not the choice of Government's own technical officers to run the project – had departed and a new company, LLC Bermuda Ltd., had been set up to replace Landmark Lisgar Construction Ltd.

Government documents obtained by The Royal Gazette show that once again a substantial proportion of the shares – 3,900 out of the 10,000 total – are held in a trust, meaning the public do not know some of the figures who are behind the new venture LLC Bermuda Ltd.

Work began on the multi-storey building on the corner of Church and Court streets in December 2007.

But by March 2008, the project had risen $3 million in price – to $78 million – and by October Government was announcing a management shake-up and admitting simplifications would be made to the project to speed things along.

In November, Government hired a consultant at a further cost of $400,000 to help the ailing project. One building source, with a track record in large buildings, believes it is up to nine months behind schedule.

However Mr. Burgess said work is now moving both rapidly and smoothly.

He added: "I do not consider it either necessary or desirable to rebut or discuss each and every falsehood contained in (Monday's) article.

"Further, I will not assist those elements who would wish to stymie our progress by responding to each and every false allegation fed to, or invented by, the media."

Shadow Works and Engineering spokeswoman Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said Mr. Burgess' press release was so nebulous it was devoid of any sort of explanation.

She wondered if Government thought the public were so anaesthetised they would accept anything and she also noted that the Government had conceded some of the claims were right.

"What is right and what is wrong? What is going on – what is the big secret?"

A new company had been set up to run the project said Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin.

"Why is it the public can't know where their money is going?

"We had the experience of Berkeley when information wasn't forthcoming, we are just afraid history is going to repeat itself."