Housing Minister Sen. David Burch needs to think a little more carefully before carrying out his threat to "name and shame" contractors who are alleged to have defrauded the Bermuda Housing Corporation.

Sen. Burch said this week that he intended to name the contractors if the Government's legal advisors decided they would be unable to prove in court that the contractors had defrauded the Corporation through inflated bills.

Parliamentary privilege is an ancient right granted to Members of Parliament to enable them to speak freely and without fear of prosecution on matters of public importance.

A Joint Committee on Parliamentary Privilege in the British Parliament stated in 1999: "The most important privilege is that of freedom of speech. As MPs cannot be prosecuted for sedition or sued for libel or slander over anything said during proceedings in the House, this enables them to raise in the House questions affecting the public good which might be difficult to raise outside owing to the possibility of being sued. The House of Lords has similar privileges."

This is an important and vital privilege. But it is a privilege and not a right and it is equally important that it not be abused.

There have been some arguments that if MPs or Senators accused people of crimes before they have reported them to the authorities, they would be abusing their privilege.

And there have been cases, especially in Australia, when prominent people have been accused of sexual offences which have later been proven to be unfounded. Nonetheless, the stigma remains and the accused person has no recourse because of privilege (which is as a result now known in Australia as "the coward's castle").

In Sen. Burch's case, he has in effect said that if the Government's own lawyers do not feel they have enough evidence to take a contractor to court, then he will name the contractors in the Senate anyway.

In the long run would do more harm than good to Parliament, the Government and its Ministers and the Bermuda Housing Corporation.

Unproven, or disproved, claims made behind the shield of privilege would lead to lack of public confidence and trust in the statements of the Island's legislators.

Government Ministers who do not believe their own lawyers are capable of making a case should fix that problem, not fall back on the expedient of naming and shaming people who may well be innocent.

No honest contractor would do business with the Corporation if there was a risk that months or even years later they would be named as a cheat in the House of Assembly or the Senate.

This not to say that fraudulent contractors should not be pursued; they should. If inflated invoices have been submitted, if the BHC was billed for work that was never completed or was shoddily done, then the contractors should be pursued to the ends of the earth. But if no case is brought, then the contractors are innocent in the eyes of the law.

There is a further risk for Sen. Burch and the Government in all of this: at the same time that the Government is pursuing contractors, the Police continue to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption by Bermuda Housing Corporation officials.

And it has already been claimed in the House of Assembly (under privilege) that some Cabinet Ministers are being investigated as well.

If Sen. Burch named and shamed contractors against whom no case could be brought, there would be nothing to stop another MP or Senator from "naming and shaming" those Ministers, even if the Police had been unable to build a provable case against them. That, at least, should give Sen. Burch pause.