As the Bermuda Housing Corporation blanketed itself in silence this week, one of the contractors cited in news reports last week for receiving large payments has been living a nightmare.

Delbie Borden of Borden's Carpentry and General Maintenance told The Royal Gazette he was publicly embarrassed and almost lost credit at one of his most important suppliers this week because his company's name was thrown into the spiralling BHC controversy.

Mr. Borden said he wanted to come to the media last Friday and explain the $487,193 his company received in payment for work on BHC contracts between May and November last year but was told by BHC general manager Raymonde Dill that a press conference would be held to clear everything up.

The contractor was told to collect all his men and bring them to the press conference.

It was cancelled half an hour before its scheduled start and Mr. Borden said he has not heard from Mr. Dill since.

"I was very disappointed," he told The Royal Gazette. "But I hoped it would blow over. It didn't though, it just got worse."

As the story continued to run in the newspaper daily, Mr. Borden said he even called Opposition MP Michael Dunkley and made two appointments to speak with him - but later broke them on the advice of his lawyer, who said he'd handle everything.

Lawyer Wendell Hollis of Hollis & Co. also originally advised Mr. Borden not to speak to the media.

He continued to endure comments and sniggers of friends and acquaintances but the situation became unbearable when he went to Gorham's on Wednesday to pick up supplies and the clerk called the manager when she heard the company name.

"It was very embarrassing," he said. "I had to explain everything there in front of the counter before other customers."

He spoke out to The Royal Gazette yesterday to clarify the name of his business and the extent of the work it has been doing for BHC after he was approached at his home.

Mr. Borden said the suggestion that he collected $487,193 solely for carpentry work between May and November of last year was incorrect.

While his business has been referred to as 'Borden's Carpentry', its full name is 'Borden's Carpentry and General Maintenance' - it was simply shortened on the cheques, he said.

"If I had seen a carpenter making that much, I'd be shocked too," he said. "If carpentry did that well, I wouldn't need all these guys."

'Borden's Carpentry' was among three BHC contractors for whom pay records were leaked to the Mid Ocean News last week as allegations of corruption, kickbacks and double billing at the corporation bubbled to the surface.

During the period of time covered by the leaked BHC records, however, Mr. Borden's crew - which includes 15 full-time workers and a number of part-timers - worked more than seven jobs for the Corporation.

And, as opposed to simply carpentry work, his crews actually brought some of these houses "back from the dead", he added.

Speaking at the site of one of his current BHC contracts yesterday - a formerly derelict house on Spanish Point Road - Mr. Borden pointed out his work includes general construction, concrete laying, roofing, carpentry, electrical, installation of doors and windows, tiling, hard landscaping and even plumbing.

"We do it all," he said.

The budget for the Spanish Point Road home is $340,000 in total, he said. The crew has been working on the home for two and a half months and the job is nearing completion.

"Essentially, we had to demolish what existed and build a whole house," Mr. Borden said. "Where else can you get that done in Bermuda for $300,000?"

Simultaneously, a second Borden's crew is at work on another project.

With 13 men on the Spanish Point job yesterday, Mr. Borden said the bill he will submit to BHC for work this week will range from $18,000 to $25,000 while his overhead for the job might run in the range of $20,000.

That will cover materials, equipment, regular payroll and any overtime his men work.

"My men get time and a half for overtime," he said. "And they have insurance through Colonial."

While line items on the documents leaked to the press last week, showed weekly payments to Borden's Carpentry ranging from $2,225 to $40,500 these payments are reconciled weekly by BHC on his jobs, he explained.

Mr. Borden also provided The Royal Gazette with a sample of the weekly bill he will submit to BHC (see inset), accounting for the weekly payment within the context of the overall budget for the project.

The Spanish Point home was not one of the BHC projects covered in the documents leaked to Mid Ocean last week, but over half a dozen others were across Bermuda.

Borden's crew completely rebuilt homes on Glebe Road along the North Shore and at Duke of Clarence Street in St. George's, renovated two apartments above the old Simmons Ice Cream in Somerset and did less extensive work for BHC at Barrack's Hill, Wellington Back Road and Port Royal.

Some of this work was what BHC calls 'make-readies', he said. In which the contractor is asked to prepare a home for a family in need of shelter within two weeks.

"My guys will work till midnight and weekends to get people in (to a home) who need a home," Mr. Borden said.

"I have six of the best young masons in Bermuda. The work of my crew stands for itself and I take a lot of pride in the work we do."

His staff is almost fully Bermudian, he added, although he employs one man of West Indian descent who has been in Bermuda for many years.

"I have nothing to hide," Mr. Borden said. "I understand there is an investigation and the press has its job to do, but I feel like I have nothing to do with that. But I've been caught up in it and treated unfairly."

The contractor already had an auditor working on his books before the mounting allegations against BHC came to light.

"I have been building this business for two years," he said. "It started real small and I've been adding equipment and building it up. But it was getting too big and I needed help with the books."

Mr. Borden told The Royal Gazette he knows little of the work of other BHC contractors and nothing of the two others cited in leaked documents last week - painter Paul Young, who was allegedly paid over $800,000 for work between May and November 2001, and gardener Caven Richardson, who received $68,000 for 12 weeks work for BHC.

"I don't know about those guys or the general business of operating the BHC," he said. "I don't socialise with these people or play golf and rub shoulders with them.

"I just bid on jobs and work on them. Socially, I stick to the east end and I'm very involved with cricket. That's it."

Mr. Borden, a county cricket player for St. David's, also explained there was no nefarious reason his phone number was not listed.

"I was going through some personal problems and had to have my phone number unlisted for a while," he said. "But when the new phone book comes out it will be in there. I just missed the deadline for last year's book. I told BHC they could give my number to anyone who asked though."