Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley accused Government yesterday of awarding contracts to Correia Construction because of their close link to a certain Government Minister.

However the West End Development Corporation, the Government quango responsible for Dockyard, maintained the contract came under their control - and declined to comment further on Mr. Dunkley's allegations.

And while Legislative Affairs Minister Michael Scott said that as a quango Wedco is not legally obligated to comply with the financial instructions regarding tendering process, his Shadow counterpart John Barritt asked why, if that is true, they put contracts to tender in the first place. “That puts the lie to that kind of initial defence.”

Correia Construction came under the spotlight last week when it was revealed that it was handed a $3.8 million Government contract to repair the Dockyard foreshore, which was damaged during Hurricane Fabian. Mr. Dunkley was quick to defend Correia's reputation, making it clear that he was not attacking the marine construction firm, but Government's tendering process.

In formal questions tabled in the House of Assembly, Works and Engineering Minister Ashfield DeVent revealed that no other companies were allowed to bid on the contract as it was believed that Correia was the only one with the capability to meet the time restraints posed by the start of the cruise ship season.

However several construction companies told The Royal Gazette in a story run on Wednesday that not only would they have been interested in and capable of doing the job, but that by failing to shop around Government had risked being ripped off. “That just shoots the answer right out of the water,” Mr. Dunkley said yesterday. “So what is the real answer?”

Government declined to answer questions from The Royal Gazette last week on the tendering process for construction contracts at Works and Engineering, saying the tendering process was currently under review.

“That process has been reviewed enough times, it should run like clockwork,” Mr. Dunkley said, speaking from the floor of the House of Assembly during the motion to adjourn yesterday. “(The Royal Gazette) was stonewalled because they didn't want something to get out.”

He then revealed why he and Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons asked Government the questions about Correia in the first place.

He was approached by a contractor who had been misled by a Wedco technical officer to believe he would be allowed to bid on the contract, Mr. Dunkley said. However, when the contractor visited the site, Correia was already at work.

“Too often it appears that there is favouritism when it comes to the handing out of Government contracts,” Mr. Dunkley said, alleging that Correia has “a very close relationship with a certain Government Minister”.

Though Mr. Dunkley had not named which Minister he referred to, Government backbencher and Wedco chairman Walter Lister called a point of order in defence of “the Minister”. “There is absolutely no truth in it (Mr. Dunkley's accusation),” he said. Mr. Lister ridiculed the idea that Wednesday's story was an example of excellent investigative reporting, saying that this same paper had reported that there had been an emergency meeting at Dockyard “yesterday evening”. The reported meeting, which was in fact reported on by VSB and not The Royal Gazette, never took place.

He explained that, as Mr. DeVent told this newspaper in Wednesday's story, the dock had to be made ready in time to receive cruise ships and “that section was completed on time.”

“And any investigative reporter could have come to us and found out the facts. But they have a motive with other members to print what they want.”

And he argued that if Wedco had not met the time constraints the Opposition would have criticised Government.

He said the suggestion that a Minister was “in cahoots” with the contractor was impugning improper motives. “You cannot go out and say you want to act responsibly saying things that are not true ... Most of the facts are in the answers that were given by the Minister, and the Opposition and their friends don't want those responses.”

The Royal Gazette story contained a “lot of supposition”, he said.

Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said the UBP doesn't write the news stories. “But to the extent that they are written in the first place and to the extent there is accuracy in those stories it's up to the Government to use those criticisms constructively,” she said.

But she rejected the reasons given for not putting it out to tender, saying any extenuating circumstances could be written into the contracts.

Wedco general manager Lloyd Telford yesterday afternoon maintained that control over the awarding of that contract fell with Wedco and no one else.

However he refused to comment further on Mr. Dunkley's accusations.