WORKS & Engineering Minister David Burch announced last month that the new Berkeley school was "substantially completed" and had been handed over to the Ministry of Education.

If his statement meant that the new building had been issued with a "certificate of substantial completion", it should have followed that flaws such as those highlighted by whistleblower Gabriel Martel had first been rectified, according to a leading local architect.

Ian Gordon, who has been a registered architect for 26 years, said if he issued such a certificate in the private sector for a building with serious flaws, he could expect to be sued.

We approached Mr. Gordon, who worked on the XL building as well as other large-scale projects in Bermuda and overseas, for his opinion on the damning observations of Canadian construction expert Mr. Martel.

Mr. Gordon pointed out that local construction requirements were, in some respects, lower than those in North America and advised the Government to use a local consultant to inspect the building.

He added that he would be surprised if the Ministry of Education had accepted the building without a "certificate of occupancy" issued by the Department of Planning, a verification of the building's safety. Without that, no insurance company would cover the building, he added.

On January 12 this year, Sen. Burch announced that the school had been handed over to the Education Ministry and added: "What is required now is a licence agreement that has been signed by myself and the Minister of Education and currently resides with the Board of Governors of the Berkeley Institute. Once that is signed I presume the Ministry of Education will hand the facility over to the school."

The Minister made the announcement during the same week that former site superintendent Mr. Martel took a batch of pictures that appear to show exposed electrical wires and fallen masonry at Berkeley.

"What tends to happen in all major construction projects is that when they are nearing completion a representative of the contractor will go around and make an inspection of areas that are nearly finished," Mr. Gordon said.

"That inspection is for internal purposes, taking note of all the items that need to be addressed. Once they have dealt with those unfinished items to their own satisfaction, the contractor can then ask the architect for an inspection to get the certificate of substantial completion.

"When the internal inspection finds lots of things that need to be dealt with, then the contractor will say they're not ready for the final inspection.

"It's quite possible in a project of this size for there to have been hundreds of code violations ? or unfinished items ? if it's not been turned over to the new owner (the Ministry of Education) yet. The question is whether these items are in areas that have already received the certificate of substantial completion.

"I suspect that Mr. Martel was carrying out an internal inspection prior to the final inspection for the certificate of substantial completion. It is possible in a project of this size that some areas had the certificate and some do not.

"If a certificate of substantial completion has been issued by the Ministry of Works & Engineering in areas where these unfinished items were found, then somebody has issued it without doing a thorough check. If I did that in the private sector, then I would be heavily sued."

Mr. Gordon said the next stage would be to obtain a certificate of occupancy from the Department of Planning.

"Construction contracts are very complicated and I'm not sure what the terms are with Berkeley, but I'd be very surprised if the Ministry of Education would accept any parts of the building without the certificate of occupancy," Mr. Gordon said.

"Without that, there is no way you could insure the building. No insurance company would do it."

One of the issues highlighted by Mr. Martel was that of expansion joints, built into large structures, especially to accommodate expansion with temperature change, or slight shifting of foundations.

"Half the expansion joints were either improperly installed or omitted altogether by the original contractor," Mr. Martel said, adding that failure to insert them could lead to cracking of the masonry and concrete.

Mr. Gordon said: "I would certainly expect to see expansion joints in a building the size of Berkeley. You need them whenever you have long areas of concrete block."

He added that great care was required to insert the "corking" so that the joints worked correctly and that they were waterproof.

"However, expansion joints is an area of construction where there are lower levels of acceptance in Bermuda than there would be in the US or Canada," Mr. Gordon said.

"One reason is that Bermuda has a relatively stable climate. Building materials contract and expand with temperature change. In Bermuda, buildings only have to deal with a temperature range from about 45 degrees to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In the US or Canada, you have to deal with a much bigger range from about minus 20 to 110."

Expansion joints might typically be needed every 12 or 15 feet length of masonry, Mr. Gordon added. Omission of the joints or bad installation could lead to cracks, allowing water to infiltrate.

"If I were in Government's shoes, I would have a local consultant inspect the site," Mr. Gordon said. "Somebody from overseas might not be able to make an accurate assessment according to Bermuda construction regulations.

"So why bring someone in from overseas when you can draw from the local industry?"

The architect summarised: "Running a large construction project is very complicated business. It takes a lot of experience and there is a lot of risk.

"In this case Works & Engineering now seems to be the main contractor, while Somers (Construction) is probably operating as a management contractor. I believe Somers is one of the most capable contractors on the island and I imagine they would have been very careful when joining this project not to leave themselves liable for any work carried out before they came in.

"Once a building is handed over to the owner (the Ministry of Education) then the owner becomes liable for any added costs caused by delays and extra work."