Immigration Minister David Burch has called for Bob Richards to resign after he likened a plan for expatriate ID cards to “Nazi Germany” — without disclosing that one of his own companies would make $3 million from the project.

Shadow Finance Minister Mr. Richards denounced the scheme at a press conference and in Parliament on Friday, claiming it “smacks very heavily of Nazi Germany” and was “an offence to right-thinking people”.

But Senator Burch said at a press conference this afternoon that a company controlled by Mr. Richards, Bermuda Information Technology Services (BITS), had been contracted to work on the project.

He said the contract would now be reviewed as a result of Mr. Richards’ “public display of dishonesty”.

Sen. Burch said: “It will likely come as a surprise to some that one of the firms that stand to receive almost $3 million from this project is none other than one controlled by Mr. E. T. Bob Richards.

“Yes, you heard me correctly — he who characterises his work as Nazi tactics. Now the standards by which I operate would suggest that, even at the lowest levels of honesty, fairness and integrity, would demand that one would at least first declare their interest.”

Sen. Burch added: “This sad example of political duplicity and dishonesty can only be resolved by the leader of the Opposition demanding the resignation of Mr. Richards from the Shadow Cabinet.”

Mr. Richards told The Royal Gazette that BITS, of which he is a director, was involved in a project for online applications for Department of Immigration products and that it had outsourced much of the work to a US company.

“I am not a computer programmer and am not privy to the detailed specifications of the work BITS is involved with, and neither should I be,” he said.

“My political views have no connection to the legitimate business activities of companies in which I have an interest, an interest I have already publicly declared.”

Read the full story in tomorrow’s edition of The Royal Gazette.