BERMUDA Housing Corporation's Vacant and Derelict Housing Programme - and most of its capital programmes - have been frozen as the publicly funded organisation tries to move on from the scandal which engulfed it last year.

The BHC's new general manager Vance Campbell told the Mid-Ocean News yesterday that work was ongoing to "put the house back in order", as a police investigation continues into allegations of corruption at the quango. And Mr. Campbell appealed for patience from the general public as the clean-up continued.

Under the Vacant and Derelict Programme, property owners were given grants to renovate dilapidated or disused buildings and to convert them into homes.

Mr. Campbell said: "The Vacant and Derelict Programme - as with most of our capital programmes - we have put a feeze on them. I'm not sure how long the freeze has been in place, but it was done before I arrived here. We are looking at all the buildings in the programmes and I have a team working on that.

"We are examining all of these properties to ascertain what difficulties there are with them and what needs to be done.

"From a housekeeping point of view, this will help to steady the ship and get the house back in order.

"After all that was revealed in the news media last year, it is our intention to get the necessary controls in place."

Mr. Campbell started in his new job on February 17 this year, replacing temporary general manager Deborah Blakeney.

"We are making positive steps, but we are asking the general public to show their patience," added Mr. Campbell. "We are working hard on the improvements that need to be put in place, but Rome wasn't built in a day."

The freeze may have left some building work in limbo on projects aimed at easing the island's housing crisis.

We found one house on the Vacant and Derelict Programme in Dunscombe Lane, Pembroke, where tens of thousands of dollars of public money have been poured into a scheme to renovate an old house to make three dwelling units.

Work on the two-storey property was halted by owner and builder Terry Eve several months ago, with no roof in place, and windows still to be installed.

Efforts to contact Mr. Eve yesterday were unsuccessful.

A letter in a Planning Department file dated February 18, 2000, from a BHC mortgage manager to Mr. Eve read: "The BHC has agreed in principle to provide the necessary funds to complete construction of this project and to place the three apartments under our Vacant and Derelict Programme so we can provide needed housing for Bermuda families in our target group."

But with the job still far from completion, work on the property in Dunscombe Lane, Pembroke, stopped months ago. Whether the freeze was the cause of the stop in work on Mr. Eve's property is not known.