SHADOW Health Minister Michael Dunkley has expressed surprise that police investigating the Bermuda Housing Corporation scandal had not interviewed former BHC boss Ed Cowen before this week.

Mr. Cowen, who stepped down as the Corporation's general manager in September, 1999, under heavy political pressure from the Government, broke his silence this week in a speech to Hamilton Rotary Club.

Mr. Cowen said the BHC had been well run and in good shape financially before Raymonde Dill replaced him and that he had been surprised that police had not interviewed him with regard to their ongoing investigation into financial affairs of the BHC.

Mr. Dill was fired last year following an investigation by Auditor General Larry Dennis which came hard on the heels of revelations by this newspaper of extraordinary payments to contractors.

A police officer was reportedly in the Rotary Club audience and took notes as Mr. Cowen spoke.

Mr. Dunkley, who first raised allegations of corruption at the BHC in the House of Assembly more than a year ago, said yesterday: "What is surprising to me is that the police had not contacted Mr. Cowen.

"If the BHC investigation is as comprehensive as the Police Commissioner has said it is. Certainly up until recently, they had not spoken to Tudor Smith, a former property officer there. Both of these guys were forced to leave and you would have thought police checking on the background of the case would have spoken to them as a starting point, so they knew how things were running at the Housing Corporation in the past."

Mr. Dunkley said there were still serious problems at the BHC and that the Government had failed to address the issue of what they had done to change things in the aftermath of the scandal.

"This Government appears to have no controls in place for money and no controls for projects," said Mr. Dunkley.

"Every time we see media reports focussing on the business of the Housing Corporation, we get no comment from either (Housing) Minister (David) Burch, or from (Health) Minister (Nelson) Bascome.

"It is of the utmost importance that the Housing Minister talks about the changes necessary to make sure that the Housing Corporation is functioning properly.

"The reports reaching me are that there are still huge problems in the BHC - not so much now with corruption, as with management controls and property maintenance. And the 24-hour hotline is a phantom, it's just not working.

"It's fine for them to be unwilling to comment, but it's in all of our interests for them to sort out the mess."

Mr. Dunkley claimed recently that the police inquiry into the BHC was being delayed by political pressure from the governing Progressive Labour Party, who did not want it to be concluded before the General Election.

Police Commisioner Jonathan Smith denied Mr. Dunkley's claim and said the police's timetable was not affected by any outside influences.

Police spokesman Dwayne Caines said yesterday that he could make no comment on who the police were questioning in the investigation.

Mr Caines added: "We have to be very clear about what our role is and we have to guard against this particular investigation becoming a political football. We do not want to get involved in that."

Mr. Dunkley did not reveal the source behind his claim. "The point was made and I think the police have taken it on board. The main thing is that the police are allowed to do their job and this issue is resolved as soon as possible," he said.

"When you look at the broader picture, the whole Cabinet has a responsibility for this fiasco and there were several Ministers directly involved. They should either resign or call an election. It's a fact that the Premier had to know what was going on at the BHC."