Government has learned from the experience of the week-long Marsh Folly dump fire, Works and Engineering Minister Dennis Lister assured MPs on Friday.

He told the House of Assembly: “Many have suggested that we were negligent, that we should have known it would become engulfed in flames, that we should not have let the pile get that high. Perhaps.

“More importantly, we have learned from this experience. We have made the necessary changes. We can’t control Mother Nature, nor will we try, but we will do all that we can so that we do not tempt her. I’m proud of the manner in which all those who extinguished the fire carried out their responsibilities. There was a definite team spirit.”

Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Jon Brunson criticised Government for allowing the rubbish pile at Marsh Folly to get as high as it did. “I think it has been dubbed in some circles as Mount Vesuvius,” he quipped.

Mr. Brunson said vital equipment at the plant should not have been allowed to be out of service. “That shouldn’t be allowed to happen, but it did,” he said.

Earlier, Mr. Lister admitted that a “portfolio” of Government buildings needed major refurbishments due to years without planned maintenance.

Kicking off his introduction of the budget figures for 2007-8, the Minister explained this was split for the first time into two separate divisions within the Ministry — Lands, Buildings and Surveys, plus Operations and Engineering.

The Lands and Buildings section has a total budget of $30.2 million for the next year.

Mr. Lister said additional staff for this section would be created through training to service and maintain Government buildings. In addition, customer satisfaction regarding building maintenance would be recorded.

The Minister said Government buildings were “suffering from over 40 years of unplanned building maintenance programmes. There’ve been years of neglect”.

This, he told the House, had resulted in “a portfolio of buildings facing major refurbishment”. Mr. Lister said recent discoveries of mould in buildings had shown the importance of proper planned maintenance.

And he told the House although $9.8 million worth of repairs had been earmarked in the last budget: “I’m pleased to report that in reality $11 million was spent on repairs to Government premises”.

The Minister said the maintenance section of the Ministry was working on a plan that will lead to decisions on which should be refurbished and which should be demolished. Building condition surveys are also in the process of being carried out by the buildings section.

Refuting what he described as comments from some quarters that gaining contracts with the Ministry is a “closed book,” Mr. Lister told the House that 22 new contractors were used in the last year.

Moving to the Operations and Engineering division, which has a budget allocation of $40.3 million, he explained that this covered such areas as highways, waste collection and vehicle and equipment repairs.

Mr. Brunson said Mr. Lister’s speech indicated that the Government was reacting to situations, rather than being proactive. “What I heard is that there are buildings that need much-needed maintenance,” he said. “The issue of maintenance is critical to Works and Engineering.”

He called on Government to carry out improvements at the dilapidated Club Med property in St. George’s, which is used by down-and-outs, to the Police station and court building in Hamilton, to the roof at the Marsh Folly depot and to the Causeway.

Mr. Brunson praised the new recycling centre but said a campaign to make Islanders aware of it needed to be launched. “We need to have a stronger recycling campaign,” he said. “We need, once again, to encourage people to start doing it and educate them on the benefits and advise them of the facility we have. I would have had a big, huge educational blitz.”

He said all work done across the Island by Works and Engineering needed to be done in line with sustainable development. “In order for Bermuda to thrive, we have to do it in a sustainable way.”