Claims of cronyism have dogged the Government's vehicle safety and emissions testing programme for years — and last night there was no let up in the criticism.

Opposition MPs said the findings of Auditor General Heather Jacobs Matthews in her special report on TCD — including that there was a conflict of interest with the two private companies involved — confirmed fears that the multimillion dollar construction project was mishandled from the start.

Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said: "When conflicts of interest are overlooked as 'OK, because it is a PLP Government' we must all realise that for the benefit of a very few, we all must pay.

"The few who benefit, upon close scrutiny, are not those who might expect relief, but, instead, are the same ones who feed handsomely at the government trough with little regard for those for whom they create a disadvantage."

Shawn Crockwell, Bermuda Democratic Alliance's transport spokesman, said: "Our reaction? Here we go again. It's outrageous and it is unfortunate that this Government continues to misuse the public purse."

The idea for the scheme was first mooted back in the late 1990s and Bermuda Emissions Control Ltd. (BECL) — a company formed in 1997, according to Ms Matthews — got involved in 2000.

That year, Cabinet agreed that BECL should establish a vehicle emissions standard for the Island to reduce noxious fumes and that the law should be changed to ensure imported vehicles met international standards.

At the start of 2001, Transport Minister Ewart Brown — later to become Premier — explained that the Island's vehicles were not burning fuel as efficiently as possible and that tourists were "telling us that Bermuda is wonderful but they can't smell the flowers".

In August that year, he wrote to BECL to notify the company that Government had decided to "waive the tendering requirement and award any related contracts to BECL".

The firm was part-owned by Dr. Brown's cousin Donal Smith, an entrepreneur — a circumstance which would later lead the United Bermuda Party to suggest nepotism was at play.

Construction boss Dennis Correia — a friend of Dr. Brown's — came into the picture in February 2003, when he obtained 30 percent of the shares in BECL. Mr. Correia also owns 30 percent of Correia Construction Company Ltd. (CCCL).

According to the Auditor General, Cabinet documents from the same year show that BECL proposed building a new vehicle testing and administration facility for the Transport Control Department (TCD) in Hamilton and two smaller emissions testing centres, in Southampton and St. George's.

They were to fund and build the facilities with CCCL and Government was to buy them in April 2004 for $5.3 million.

In March 2006, as plans progressed for the project, BECL wrote to the Accountant General to acknowledge the common ownership it shared with CCCL.

It described the link as a "distinct advantage" for the project — a view not shared by Ms Matthews when she launched a probe into the project earlier this year and confirmed an "inherent conflict of interest".

In October 2006, a revised budget of $8.6 million was put forward for the scheme by the Ministry of Transport.

Early the following year, it became public knowledge that BECL had been recruited to run the emissions testing centres and that CCCL would build the facilities — with neither contract having gone out to tender.

The claims of cronyism began, with Shadow Transport Minister Bob Richards telling the Senate: "It's a pattern of cronyism, a cronyism whose tentacles have reached across all of Bermuda."

By September 2007, the estimated cost of the project had risen to $12.9 million and, eventually, the Ministry of Finance increased the budget to $14.2 million.

Yet when the new Hamilton facility was unveiled in November 2008, then TCD director Randy Rochester said it had been delivered on-budget.

Dr. Brown — who performed the official opening — claimed the work was done four months ahead of schedule and praised Mr. Correia for completing the job swiftly. "Maybe that has something to do with why the Government likes to see you do work," he said.

The final cost for the construction of the emissions centres was $15.2 million — a figure that doesn't take into account the annual $2.4 million fee which Cabinet agreed in 2008 to give BECL to operate the facilities for at least five years.

Noting the $10 million overrun as she released her report yesterday, Ms Matthews said she had discovered a "lack of accountability and a general disregard for established policies and procedures in the use of public funds".

She and her team are working on another special report involving a Government contract awarded to CCCL — the pier at Dockyard, the cost of which climbed from an initial estimate of $35 million to $60 million.