The general contractors for the controversial new $70 million Berkeley Institute broke their silence last night to respond to claims that the project was running behind schedule.

President and general manager of Pro-Active Management Systems Ltd. Arthur Ebbin spoke to The Royal Gazette for the first time to defend his company following a string of accusations and fears expressed about the progress of the work and Government's choice of bidder.

Mr. Ebbin said: "We won the contract fair and square and the reason we don't comment is because we are not interested in political football.

"We sit here and we don't respond. When you see blatant lies, what's the point?"

"The fact is that we are doing our best to meet the deadline. We are currently working on the three water tanks.

"Why don't these people (who have expressed concerns) come to our office, instead of to you (the Press)."

The project to build a new Government secondary school has created a great deal of interest, and criticism, since the bids were submitted at the start of this year.

Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott came in for criticism after Pro-Active was chosen as the manager of the site because it was a little-known company and had not put in the lowest bid.

It bid $68 million, while BermudaTech bid $63 million. Three other contractors put in higher bids.

Claims were made that Pro-Active had been chosen because of its links to the Progressive Labour Party - and the decision led to an outcry by members of the United Bermuda Party, contractors and workers at BermudaTech.

And in recent weeks, concern has grown over the apparent lack of activity on the site on Berkeley Road, which last week led to Acting Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Erwin Adderley to call on Government to make public the project's construction timetable.

He said he wanted Government to say whether the project had reached the stage it had hoped by September 1.

But yesterday, Mr. Ebbin said he believed the accusations were the result of people's prejudices because Pro-Active was a Bermudian firm with a majority of black workers.

And he challenged anybody to compare the experience of his staff, and their qualifications, with any other on the Island.

He said: "I want to make this very clear to you, and the rest of Bermuda, that if anybody wants to talk to me, they can call me.

"We will only give information that has been standardly asked of any other contractor in Bermuda that has been building similar projects.

"If they can prove to me that this request is natural in Bermuda, then fine. But I am not going to answer any questions that are not standardised. This is ridiculous. This is unheard of."

The school project was awarded to Pro-Active at the end of May and has a deadline of September 2003, when it is due to open to students.

Government said the main reason the company was chosen as the general contractor was because it was Bermudian-owned and because it had promised to hire Bermudians first for the site.

And yesterday, Mr. Ebbin pledged to stick to that promise. He said he could not guarantee that no foreign workers would be hired for the massive site, but said locals would be given first option.

He said although Pro-Active would not do the hiring directly, the sub-contracting firms would be Bermudian.

And he said he wanted to get Bermudian students on the site so they could be given the knowledge and experience in a variety of fields, such as engineering, accounting, architecture and brick work.

He added: "This is the first time in Bermuda that a contract has been given to a Bermudian company that is majority black and people seem to have a problem with that.

"The reason we got this contract was because it's going to be built by Bermudians and not a foreign company. We are doing our job. Pro-Active is proceeding on the job as best we can under the constraints we have.

"All we hear is negativity. We have had no problems. The accusations that are made by people are unfounded and unfair and they smack of politicalisation of an important project."

The manager said, contrary to concerns expressed in the media about the steel being delayed for the project, everything was running to plan.

He said workers, between 40 and 60 of them, were on site the majority of the time and were laying foundations, and putting in three huge water tanks.

However, many people, including The Royal Gazette, have visited the site in the last week and have seen few workers and little activity.

But Mr. Ebbin said: "We have three big holes up there. They (the workers) have to come out of the holes first (before they can be seen).

"How are we going to put steel up without foundations."

Minister Alex Scott said yesterday Government was not the manager of the site, so anyone wishing to look at a construction programme for Berkeley would have to ask Pro-Active.

He said: "We are not managing the site. Pro-Active is managing the site. We gave the commitment that we would give progress reports and I would have thought that to all reasonable people that would suffice. It could become ridiculous.

"More specific information you would want to get from them."

The Royal Gazette asked Mr. Ebbin to take a reporter and a photographer on a tour of the site, with a full explanation of what was happening, but he declined.

He said: "I wouldn't take anyone on a construction site unnecessarily."