Works Minister Derrick Burgess yesterday complained "so-called newspapers" The Royal Gazette and Mid Ocean News have been "working around the clock to disrupt and stymie progress" on the Hamilton Police/court building site.

In a furious speech at the House of Assembly, the Minister also labelled Shadow Works Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin a "mindless marionette" whom he said was "parroting arrant rubbish" at the whim of the two newspapers.

Mr. Burgess was speaking following widespread media coverage of the controversial project which has seen its cost rise and Landmark Lisgar Construction now LLC Bermuda appointed against the choice of Government's technical officers. He referred to specific reports in the Mid Ocean News, not carried by this newspaper, but did not mention anything specific he believes The Royal Gazette has got wrong.

"I have to say that serious allegations, innuendos, imputations and suggestions have been made which cannot be ignored and which, as far as I can see, demand detailed rebuttal in the public interest and in the interest of revealing the truth," said the Minister, specifically naming this newspaper and its sister paper.

"These allegations can no longer go unchallenged. It has become crystal clear, in my estimation, that both The Royal Gazette and the Mid Ocean News have a completely negative agenda when it comes to the attempts of this Government to work for the benefit of the people of Bermuda.

"There is no question in my mind — and in the minds of my colleagues and many in the community with whom I have spoken — that these organs thrive on using lies and fabrications and that they have recently been sinking to the lowest and most unacceptable standards of journalism in order to destroy the reputations of good and honest public servants and businessmen associated or doing business with the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party Government.

"You will have heard earlier in this statement pleasing news of progress at the Magistrates' Court/Police Station building site. However, these newspapers are working around the clock to disrupt and to stymie progress on the site and to create and encourage rife speculation and rumours regarding the characters of some of my Cabinet colleagues and quite clearly me.

"Invariably these newspapers' reports are unsourced. They speak of documents from which they quote, but which they do not produce. They unfairly damage reputations.

"They write false reports knowing that they have the power to disrupt the orderly progress of Government in its attempts to run this country as we were elected by the people of Bermuda to do.

"They gleefully play word games which allow them to make, by innuendo, inference and implication, serious allegations and then to argue subsequently that they have not done so. Some of these so-called journalists appear willing to stop at nothing in their campaign to twist the truth, to cloud our message and to disrupt our work."

Prompting laughter from the Opposition United Bermuda Party, Mr. Burgess continued: "As Minister of Works and Engineering, I have done my level best to deliver both openness and transparency — to both the public and this Honourable House — in all matters relating to my portfolio, including the Magistrates' Court/Hamilton Police Station building project."

He went on: "I am not prepared to spend valuable and increasingly limited time arranging and providing responses to every single nitpicking question coming from virtually any angle on the building project when we are simply trying to get on with the job.

"Many of these queries are clearly and obviously directed towards encouraging negative public speculation. And it often seems perfectly clear to us that they are aimed at establishing a foundation for time-consuming, unnecessary and premature investigations into Government's activities even before a project is completed and before one would normally expect any kind of investigation or inquiry to be conducted.

Turning his attention to Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin, he said: "I do feel a duty to advise the Honourable Member Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin to exercise at least some care before rushing to make public statements encouraging innuendo and allegations of wrongdoing on the part of my colleagues and myself — all based on untruths manufactured, I believe, in The Royal Gazette building.

"That Honourable Member should stop allowing the Royal Gazette Limited to treat her like a mindless marionette, causing her to parrot arrant rubbish in their so-called 'newspapers' simply in order to have her quoted in these papers in order to give some kind of credibility to stories which actually have absolutely no foundation whatsoever."

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin was quoted in the Mid Ocean News in an article headline "The Whole Thing Stinks" and in rebuttal in the House yesterday she said that at no time did she indicate wrong-doing on the part of the Minister or his colleagues. "I have been quoted correctly, I stand by my quotes," she said.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin added: "You will know, Mr. Speaker, that if at any time my information is incorrect, I will admit it. If I make any misstatements, I will retract it and if I am wrong, I will apologise. I take full responsibility for all those things that can be attributed to me, but I totally and vehemently reject and rebuke the nonsense that I somehow parrot somebody else's words I don't have to."

Making reference to yesterday's article in which the Minister and the Premier denied any involvement or wrongdoing concerning this project and the comment that cheques referred to were fictitious she said: "I expressed directly to the Premier and the Minister my regret that their reputations might have been impugned or maligned by scurrilous references. I do not condone any action that serves to undermine honest effort and I am certain that if there are criminal deeds that might have caused allegations, they will be fully investigated, and if appropriate, prosecuted."

On the fabrication of the checks Independent MP Wayne Furbert said: "I am grateful that the Minister and the Premier came out and cleared everything up."

He added that every one in the House of Assembly should stand behind the Premier to get to the bottom of the situation. He said he supports the investigation being done by Police.