Government's decision to offer to temporarily buy the Bermuda Cement Company before it shuts down at least presents some hope that the Island's construction industry will not be thrown into crisis in early January.

And it is welcome too that 20 percent of the company will be offered to the general public if and when it is taken over by a private entity.

That's the good news, but the mishandling of this situation vastly overshadows it.

It should be noted that this crisis is one that is almost entirely of the Government's making since it, through the West End Development Corporation, ended the company's lease as of December 31.

That decision, without a new operator on hand to take over the company's plant, was a classic example of brinksmanship gone wrong.

It may be that the BCC has made mistakes as well in this long-running saga, but in the end, it was Wedco that was foolish enough to hold the company to ransom without having a back-up plan in place.

And the deal Government appears to be proposing leaves more questions than answers.

It has said that it will find a new operator in a "minimum of 30 days" without any kind of maximum period in place.

It also said that a new operator was in the process of being formed, but refused to say who they are. It stands to reason that Wedco should be putting the plant out to tender in a clear and transparent way. Instead, an unknown group has apparently got the green light to take the plant over, assuming Government's initial purchase goes ahead.

What is most remarkable is that Premier Dr. Ewart Brown said yesterday that the new operator would not necessarily be required to relocate the plant to a new location or build a new silo. This, he said, would be "open to negotiation".

And yet the BCC's lease was terminated because it said it could not afford to relocate.

So the BCC is forced out of business because Wedco would not move on this question. And yet the new operator will be able to negotiate over it. That is simply unfair.

Nor has Government said how much it is offering for the business, when this is the public's money that is being put up to fix an error that is of the Government's own making.

Then too, there is the question of whether Government can or should engage in this kind of negotiation when there is no guarantee that the Progressive Labour Party will be the Government on December 19.

If the United Bermuda Party wins the General Election, it would surely say it was not bound to honour whatever deal the Progressive Labour Party Government has made.

Dr. Brown became the leader of the PLP and the Premier very much on the basis that he was the man who got things done.

And yet in this case, his Government has created a crisis which now requires an unknown amount of public money to fix. It will buy and then sell a private business which is now being capably run, to an unknown group of investors. The investors will get the business through a process which makes a mockery of normal tendering procedures, and it may not even have to fulfil the terms that were demanded of the previous tenant.

This stinks. Far from "getting things done", this is an example of the grossest incompetence and ineptitude.