Workers belonging to a subcontractor at the new secondary school development have been temporarily laid off after the company was not paid for services and supplies given to the site.

The Royal Gazette understands that four employees at TES Ltd., which deals in fire proofing, were let go last week as general contractor of the $70 million site, Pro-Active Management Systems Ltd., had failed to pay on time.

And several overseas consultants will spend today reviewing the troubled project.

Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott said the HR Lubben Group will then submit a report to his ministry.

He said the Ministry will use the report as a guide as it partners with the general contractor ProActive Management Systems Ltd.

Yesterday, a source said the company hoped to re-employ the workers at some stage, once work picked up again, however, they said the small business was still waiting for the majority of its account to be settled.

The source said: "There are about four people who have been temporarily laid off. The company said it could not afford to keep them until the money had been paid, or they found additional work.

"There is work in the company, but not enough to justify all the workers. It is sad because Pro-Active owed a substantial amount of money."

Yesterday, Don MacKenzie, who owns TES, refused to comment on the project at all or the fact that some of his workers had been let go.

The Royal Gazette reported last week how members of the private sector, rumoured to be the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU), had stepped in to bail out Pro-Active.

The general contractor was said to be close to collapse, with mounting debts reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to subcontractors on the Island, and suppliers both in Bermuda and overseas.

But Minister for Works and Engineering Alex Scott said members of the community had stepped in to pay off the debts, and all bills would be settled by Tuesday this week.

A number of businesses said they had received cash owed for services and supplies - but some were still waiting for a large chunk of it.

One subcontractor, who would not be named, said: "We have received just less than half of the money that is owed to us, but at least they are beginning to pay people.

"Where they are getting the money from, I don't know, but I don't mind. At least now we are getting partial payment, so they are making an attempt to right things. It's some progress on the last few weeks."

And another contractor said they had received some money, but nowhere near the amount the company was owed.

The contractor said: "We were paid a few days ago. We will continue working on the site while we are receiving some kind of payment.

"We don't want to see the project fail, but they have to pay the contractors something."

But another contractor said, although he had received some cash, he would not be returning to the site with his workers until all of the debt had been paid.

He said: "I think we will go back if we are paid the full amount and we also have confidence that this situation won't happen again. We all have workers we have to pay."

When Pro-Active ran into trouble earlier this year, suppliers refused to send materials to the site, and contractors refused to show up.

However, one Pro-Active worker said yesterday that since some of the debts had been paid, normality was resuming on the site in Berkeley Road, Pembroke.

He said: "We have materials back on site - they started to come in on Monday and we are beginning to make progress again.

"Everything is pretty good."

President of the BIU Derrick Burgess refused to comment on the bail out yesterday, or whether the union was involved.

The Minister and his permanent Secretary have already met representatives from the Lubben Group.

Recently Mr. Scott said steps were being taken to speed up the progress of the troubled new school.

The $68 million project originally had a September 2003 deadline but is behind schedule.

Recently Mr. Scott said Pro-Active will be getting extra management from the private sector to help to speed up the project.