The costs of what Government described as an “ongoing” legal wrangle with Pro-Active Management, the contractor initially hired to build the new Berkeley Institute, have hit $1.4 million.

Minister of Works and Engineering Dennis Lister outlined the figure as part of a debate on a budget overspend related to Berkeley of $3,545,000 last year.

The portion of the unanticipated outlay in addition to the legal costs went to the contractor Somers Construction, which took over as general contractor after Pro-Active was fired from the project. According to the Opposition, the over-budget amount has taken the cost of the school that was originally set at $68 million to more than $130 million.

Pro-Active was hired by Government in 2001 to build the school by September 2003. It was given a year’s extension and another $13 million in February 2004 but was sacked later that year with the building more than 80 percent complete.

Pro-Active decided to sue the Government for wrongful termination with the latter counter suing. The arbitration proceedings — aimed at resolving the conflict out of court — are understood to be the subject of a gagging clause preventing either party from speaking publicly about them. During the budget debate on Friday evening in the House of Assembly, Minister of Works and Engineering Dennis Lister listed the $1.4 million figure as “part of the fees and costs of the ongoing arbitration exercise.”

Opposition members including Maxwell Burgess and John Barritt asked why the legal costs were coming out of the ‘capital development’ section of the budget. Mr. Barritt also inquired whether the over-budget amount represented the final figure for the cost of the Berkeley project, asking “are we puncturing the $130-million mark?”