Talks between Government and Pro-Active Management Systems on assessing the new senior secondary school site have reached an impasse.

And the contractor may launch court action as early as next week to prevent any construction work continuing until it is satisfied that an independent assessment of the state of the site is done.

"Avoiding actual courtroom litigation is next to impossible," said Pro-Active spokesman Julian Hall.

"We need an opportunity to have our own assessment done, or, failing that, to give our input into this assessment team's observations. The question simply has to be asked why the Government rejected it."

Government announced this week that it was engaging a Canadian firm to conduct an assessment.

Pro-Active, which is planning to ask an arbitrator for wrongful termination damages, is concerned that the assessment will be one-sided and says that since the document may be used in the arbitration hearings, it should have had some input in selecting the assessors.

Government agreed on Thursday to allow Pro-Active to conduct its own assessment, over a one week period starting the next day.

And it promised to produce its assessors in arbitration hearings for cross examination if PAMS disagreed with its report.

Government's assessment was expected to begin on Tuesday and end on Friday, according to the Ministry's letter to the contractor.

Pro-Active spokesperson Julian Hall described the Government's offer as a "joke".

"We were given 24 hours' notice ? this is a joke. This is not serious."

He said it would take at least two or three weeks to negotiate an arrangement with professional assessors.

"I don't know how long Government has taken to negotiate its arrangement but they have had longer than 24 hours."

Pro-Active had suggested instead that it provide a team to accompany Government's assessors and assist them with their work.

But that offer was rejected by Government. Mr. Hall said the assessor would have to study "a voluminous document called a bill of quantities in addition to detailed plans and drawings ? apart from the fact that it's a process that we understand is going to cost somewhere in the region of $50,000."

Pro-Active had started discussions with a firm in Miami, he added.

Mr. Hall said the importance of a valid assessment could not be overstated. "The history of Pro-Active's dealings with the Ministry of Works and Engineering does not engender confidence in the integrity of the process they are about to conduct. If anything we have grave doubts that an assessment conducted in this way ? without enabling professional representatives of Pro-Active to be present will ultimately stand up to scrutiny," he said. "Put it another way we don't trust them."

Mr. Hall added: "We cannot pursue our claim with any degree of confidence if we are blocked and prevented from conducting a proper assessment before any more work is done on this site. This is not a cottage we are talking about. This is a multi-storey, multi-building complex with an extensive history of changes and modifications and original design flaws. The assessment team that Government has assembled has probably already been briefed by Government but that's only one side of the story. And it comes from that side of the story which frankly wasn't on the site very much during the whole process and ought to have been. We say again we have no desire to impede progress, or to delay, but by rejecting this perfectly reasonable idea the Government is again showing bad faith and adding insult to injury. The company will spend the weekend considering its position but avoiding actual courtroom litigation is next to impossible."