A ruling on whether Pro-Active Management Systems was wrongfully dismissed from the Berkeley building project could be made by April, according to the contractor?s lawyer.

And yesterday Julian Hall (pictured) urged companies with claims against his client to wait until the arbitration verdict before taking any legal action further.

Pro-Active won the $68 million contract to build the new senior secondary school on Berkeley Road, Pembroke in April 2001. But last August Government terminated that contract after it was revealed that the building was way behind schedule and massively over budget.

Pro-Active has said it is a breach of contract and the matter is set to go before an arbitration tribunal. A date has not been set.

Mr. Hall, responding to an article on writs filed this month against Pro-Active, said that he and the company had been working ?as speedily as possible? to have the matter dealt with and were just waiting to finalise procedural details with Government?s attorneys.

?We want an early determination. There is no need for great delay,? he said. ?We should have it by no later than April.?

He said he was just days away from serving the Government with Pro-Active?s points of claim and producing the completed report of their independent assessment team.

Speaking specifically on the writs filed separately by the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) and Bermuda Air Conditioning (BAC), Mr. Hall said neither would be dealt with before the conclusion of the arbitration.

?They will get no early judgment,? he said. In respect of the BHC claim Mr. Hall said that Pro-Active has a stronger case against them. ?BHC know that we have been trying to meet with them for months,? he said. And he explained that his clients have told BHC that should they sue, they (Pro-Active) would countersue.

?We have a claim against them for failing to give the company contracts that they had promised,? he said.

Phone calls from to Vance Campbell manager of the BHC have gone unanswered for two days.

Turning his attention to the Bermuda Air Conditioning writ which the company general manager John Plested said was in excess of $100,000 for work completed at the new senior school early last year, Mr. Hall said Pro-Active owed BAC nothing. ?Pro-Active is paid and up to date,? he said. He said too that Government had effectively taken over the project and any debts BAC now has should be directed there.

He called the BAC writ ?totally frivolous? and charged that it was an orchestrated move to discredit Pro-Active.

Mr. Hall said Premier Alex Scott in recent statements had given the wrong impression that there would be no payouts made. Mr. Hall also clarified that the $13 million additional Government agreed to pay the company last February, was for ?extra work with major changes to the project? and not for a bail out.