Premier Alex Scott finally tabled the Auditor General's report into the Bermuda Housing Corporation in the House of Assembly yesterday.

The Premier also gave notice that on Friday he will move the House take note of the report - a notice which Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons promptly objected to.

The Opposition has been trying “for weeks” to move a similar motion, Dr. Gibbons said, but was consistently rebuffed.

Speaker of the House Stanley Lowe has refused debate on the issue in the House of Assembly, citing the fact that the report was never tabled, though it has been in the public domain since it was leaked to The Royal Gazette in July of 2003.

For Government to move that motion now, Dr. Gibbons said, is “absolutely shameless”.

“I don't think the public wants to hear us bicker over who brings it first,” the Premier replied, noting it was a Government report.

The Speaker also noted he had been duty-bound not to allow any debate on the report until it was properly tabled.

Auditor General Larry Dennis conducted a lengthy investigation into BHC and his report, revealed last year by The Royal Gazette, painted a picture of an “out of control management” which ultimately lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The report also found: two Government MPs were heavily involved in BHC without disclosing their interests; contractors were allowed to double bill the corporation and charge what they liked, sometimes double the amounts originally quoted; the responsibilities of the board to oversee the corporation were virtually abolished; and, established policies and procedures were ignored.

“There is little or no evidence that most of these (contract) estimates represented competitive prices, and some were wildly in excess of the value of the work performed,” the report said. Former general manager Raymonde Dill and housing officer Terrence Smith were sacked in the wake of the scandal.