BANK of Bermuda chief executive officer Philip Butterfield has been criticised for dismissing the $50 million overspend on the new school on Berkeley Road with the words: "Who cares what it cost?"

Mr. Butterfield, a former Berkeley student, made his remark to the audience at an emotional ceremony to mark the closure of the Berkeley Institute building and the move to the new Second Senior School.

One of those in the audience was Opposition Senate leader Kim Swan, who said Berkeley's long, distinguished history and the controversy of the late and over-budget new school were completely separate issues.

"For a man heading the island's biggest lending institution and working for the second largest on the globe, it was not the kind of comment you would expect," Sen. Swan, also a former Berkeley student, said.

"In his business, such cases of intolerable financial indiscipline are met with foreclosure, or even liquidation and insolvency.

"Maybe he was caught up in the emotion of the moment."

Sen. Swan added: "Certainly the celebration at Berkeley was a monumental occasion, recognising the years of useful contributions that this outstanding institution has made to Bermuda.

"But as a politician, I feel duty-bound to place the remarks by the CEO of the Bank of Bermuda in proper context.

"The Second Senior School was recently transferred to the Berkeley Educational Society, but it was the Ministry of Works & Engineering that built it, more than two years late and $50 million over budget.

"Any criticism concerning the building of the new school is in no way a criticism of the Berkeley Educational Society and the great work it has done over the last century.

"All because the school has now been handed over, it does not mean that it has become a political no-go zone. We have to differentiate between the errors made, right from the early stages, in the building of the school and the fact that now the building has been transferred."

Sen. Swan described Tuesday's farewell to the old Berkeley Institute, which had been based at that site for 104 years, as a "very moving experience".

He added: "We look forward to the future development of children who will now have the benefit of a new and more modern educational facility."

Guests at the event included Premier Alex Scott and Education Minister Terry Lister ? two of the nine members of the current Cabinet who went to Berkeley.

Many other prominent members of the community were there, such as former PLP leader Dame Lois Browne Evans, former St. George Mayor E. Michael Jones and Gerald Simons, CEO of the Argus Group.