A senior figure at the Department of Health and Safety claims Government is the worst transgressor of health and safety laws of any employer in Bermuda ?- an accusation which raises serious questions about Government?s ability to adequately maintain its buildings.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source insisted that ?major systemic failures? within Government as a whole have resulted in many, potentially dangerous structural faults ? such as leaking roofs, crumbling walls and termite-infested floors ? being left unattended for months and even years by the Ministry of Works and Engineering.

And when contacted yesterday, Government Health and Safety Officer Harry Powell said he could not deny the accusations ? while admitting he too had become frustrated by the lack of action in this ?very important area?.

He was reluctant to go into any further detail however.

Meanwhile, the source pointed to the sudden collapse of a ceiling in the Sessions House in June, as well as the well-documented disintegration of many of the Island?s Police stations as only two examples of Government?s ?pathetic? approach to the issue of safety and infrastructure maintenance.

Was it not telling as well as somewhat ironic, the source further questioned, that the offices of Government?s Chief Environmental Health Officer Estlyn Harvey are located in the old hospital complex on Berry Hill Road ? itself a building on the verge of condemnation?

?Government?s approach to health and safety on every level is quite simply pathetic,? said the source.

?Invariably, the situation has to reach crisis point before anything is done about it. In every Government building there is a Safety Officer appointed but that does not mean when a problem is detected that it is reported in the proper fashion. And even when it is, it takes an age for Works and Engineering to get round to dealing with it ? which means the problem invariably gets worse and costs more to fix.

Some of us have been trying to get officials further up the chain in Government to take the issue more seriously ? but we run into brick walls every time and it is becoming unbearable. Frankly, the people in high places who are supposed to be doing something about this are sitting on their hands and do not feel accountable to anybody. But they will be the ones who will have to answer the questions when a roof collapses somewhere and a Government employee gets seriously injured or killed.?

Repeated attempts to establish a Central Safety Committee to oversee all Government property have come to nothing, the source added, while the reluctance of the Permanent Secretary for Health Kevin Monkman to enforce real change in this area is also a sticking point.

?We are constantly told that budgetary constraints are the problem or that Works and Engineering have got too much on their plate,? the source continued.

?But that is just not good enough. The roof of the Sessions House is riddled with leaks and some of that water has seeped through into the structure and weakened it. That is not even to mention the termite problem which has been allowed to go on and on without being addressed. The Government Administration Building and Global House are improving but there are still frequent problems which are one, not properly reported to the relevant entity and two, often left to fester for an age. The whole approach to health and safety in Government is really poor and there are not enough people in positions of responsibility doing anything about it.?

Attempts to contact Mr. Monkman for a response yesterday were unsuccessful. However, a former employee from the Ministry of Works and Engineering, again speaking anonymously, said the criticisms were entirely justified.

?We always had a list of jobs in Government buildings which needed doing that we just could not get to,? he said.

?Often we?d want to do something which had been on the books for weeks but were assigned somewhere else and never got round to it. The ceiling collapse at the House of Assembly could have been avoided. All the signs were there and we knew there were leaks in the roof. But every time we thought we?d be able to get to it, something came up. It?s pretty shabby I admit. We had neither the manpower nor the leadership to get all the jobs done well. It?s pretty damn dangerous if you think about it.?