On June 26, Zane DeSilva undertook to share with the House of Assembly the “rigorous technical and procurement evaluation” (the housing minister’s own words) conducted by the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee before certain contracts were given out to Coastal Precast Systems and Preconco Ltd. These are the two companies that the minister has put his trust in to build hundreds and hundreds of homes for Bermudians.

Why is this important? Because the minister has plainly stated that no formal RFP process was followed for the award of the first tranche of building across these sites for $64 million of taxpayer funds despite there being, said the minister, “literally hundreds and hundreds” [of proposals] from many people and organisations.

When I pressed the matter in Parliament, the minister said there was no RFP “ … because we know how RFPs work. And I will tell you what, if we would have been through an RFP on this particular matter, we would be here next year and we wouldn't have built a home …”

A couple of months later, the AHAC chairman, Hugo Pereira, said: “BLMC follows its own tendering process. At the end of the day, we followed BLMC's tendering process, OK?”

Weird, really, when you consider the extensive procurement requirements set out by the Government’s Code of Practice for Project Management and Procurement Code of Practice, third edition, April 2026. These exist for good reason.

A government spokesman also said that the two publicly funded quangos leading the project, the Bermuda Housing Corporation and the Bermuda Land Management Corporation, did not need permission from the Office of Project Management and Procurement to bypass the typical government bidding procedure as they had the “legal authority and responsibility for their procurement processes”.

Given that the Bermuda Affordable Housing Strategy is looking to build 974 housing units at a cost of approximately $418.5 million, I would have thought a transparent procurement process open to the sunshine of public scrutiny was absolutely required, with the huge sums of money potentially involved.

All ironic given this minister’s penchant for criticising the airport no-bid contract (which was tremendously transparent and received the seal of approval from an independent and well-respected panel!). No such transparency from the minister, who seems to be hiding behind the AHAC, anonymous spokesmen, and not widely known procurement processes.

Given the general failings thus far with the Government delving into affordable housing, with the Bermudiana project standing testament to this, I have posed several questions in Parliament that are to be answered on Friday. They are:

1, Would the minister please provide Parliament with the procurement methodology document/s and detail the rigorous technical and procurement evaluation utilised by the Bermuda Housing Corporation/Bermuda Land Management Corporation/AHAC for the purposes of evaluating proposals made for the projects listed in the minister’s statement to this honourable House on June 26, 2026?

2, Would the minister please provide Parliament with a full listing of all proposals received and considered by the AHAC for the developments at Morgan’s Point, Victoria Place and Albert Row and Tommy Fox Road to which the minister referred in his statement of June 26, 2026, to this honourable House? Such listing to include (i) the name of the entities that made proposals (ii) date/s the proposal/s was/were considered by the AHAC (iii) the overall number of units that the entity was proposing to build (iv) the cost per square foot of each unit in the proposal/s (v) the reason/s each proposal/s was either recommended for acceptance or rejection by the AHAC?

3, A statement released to the media dated July 21, 2026, by the Ministry of Housing and Municipalities said: “Following the technical assessment, committee representatives visited the manufacturing facilities of some vendors to conduct direct evaluations of completed housing installations utilising the proposed systems, including an on-site inspection of capsule housing units in use to assess performance under actual occupancy and environmental conditions. This formed part of the committee's broader due diligence process prior to making its recommendations.”

Would the minister please advise Parliament of (i) the names of each manufacturer visited by AHAC representatives and/or the minister (ii) the date of the visits to the manufacturer by AHAC representatives and/or the minister (iii) the identity of the representatives of the manufacturer that the AHAC representatives and/or the minister met (iv) the costs of all travel expenses incurred by the BHC/AHAC/BLMC/the Ministry of Housing and Municipalities to attend the meetings with the said manufacturers?

While I agree that housing is urgent, these questions are important, as time moves quickly, with the minister announcing yet another phase with 400 homes to be built over 18 months. We must get this right to ensure we do not end up with another Bermudiana …

And before anyone says the One Bermuda Alliance simply criticises, we have written about and shared numerous ideas and thoughts on the way forward. I urge you to take a look at the numerous suggestions made by our team.

• Michael Fahy is the MP for Pembroke South West and the Shadow Minister of Labour, Economy and Housing