HOUSING Minister Sen. David Burch has been accused of using "voodoo economics" by Opposition housing spokesman Michael Dunkley.

Mr. Dunkley's comment came after Sen. Burch's announcement last week that a $10-million contingency fund had been set up to cover "over-spends" on 77 cases including building projects and loans.

The United Bermuda Party MP said he also questioned whether the large drop in the emergency housing list also announced by Sen. Burch last week was down to "dropping names from the list" rather than finding people homes.

Efforts to contact Sen. Burch yesterday were unsuccessful.

"This $10 million has come out of the blue to be used to cover these 77 projects and the Minister has not explained what exactly it will be used for - that is not accountability, it is voodoo economics," said Mr. Dunkley.

"This is a significant amount of money and at the very least, the Minister should explain how it is going to be used, down to the very last dime. And a sum of that size should be approved by the House of Assembly."

Mr. Dunkley questioned Sen. Burch's announcement that the number of names on the emergency housing list had dropped from 137 to 81.

"What I know is that as Shadow Minister, I'm getting more calls than ever from people who need a home," said Mr. Dunkley.

"I did hear the Minister say once that if someone was sleeping in someone else's living room, then they should not be on the emergency list, because they had a roof over their head.

"I believe that they may have dropped names off the list. Have they changed the requirements for emergency housing? These issues have not been answered."

In the Senate on Wednesday, Sen. Burch reacted to criticism of his threat to use Parliamentary privilege to "name and shame" people who had ripped off the BHC "in those cases where a court case is unlikely to bear fruit".

He accused his UBP critics of hypocrisy, saying they had demanded transparency in the BHC scandal, yet now they wanted secrecy.

Mr. Dunkley said: "We are not concerned about keeping secret those who are on the list, but this should be done in the right way.

"To name and shame does nothing for the community. He knows that if he does it in the Senate chambers, he is protected and if he names someone who has nothing wrong outside the chambers, then he would face a libel case.

"We in the UBP would like to see the proper approach, which is to bring people before a judge and let the courts decide."

The real issue was still to be addressed, to expose what happened in the scandal which sparked a year-long ongoing police investigation into the Corporation, he added.

"This was one of the biggest corruption scandals in the history of Bermuda and it's happened under the Smith Administration," said Mr. Dunkley.

"Justice delayed is justice denied. And still people are not finding rentals. And what do we see from the Minister? Grandstanding to try to gain support as we get nearer to an election, while nothing is cleaned up and we are no nearer to the truth than we were 14 months ago when I first brought up the issue of corruption in the House."

Sen. Burch also announced an increase in the BHC's master mortgage at the Bank of Butterfield from $45 million to $75 million. Mr. Dunkley said more explanation was needed for such a substantial increase.

"We need a full explanation of why we need to almost double this mortgage," said Mr. Dunkley.

"As anyone living in the real world is aware, when you borrow more you have to pay it back. How will this be paid back? Is it something that will hang around the taxpayer's neck for some time?"