Minister of Works and Engineering Derrick Burgess hit back against allegations of possible corruption in the way the Ministry handled Government building contracts.

The allegations came from former Auditor General Larry Dennis, who retired on Monday after speaking to this newspaper about an alleged Police investigation on possible wrong doings within the civil service. He was succeeded by Heather Jacobs Matthews.

Among Mr. Dennis' claims was that Government ignored suggestions from their own technical advisers and went with other contractors instead.

This move – which he said could be seen in the contracts for Berkeley Institute and the Hamilton Police Station/Magistrates' Court building – resulted both times in the contractor being changed and overspend of millions of taxpayer's dollars.

In a statement yesterday, Minister of Works and Engineering Derrick Burgess said he was "dismayed" by numerous comments made by Mr. Dennis. Mr. Burgess said: "By suggesting that 'the tendering process in Bermuda is really a sham' and that 'we have very few open tenders', Mr. Dennis is by innuendo impugning my integrity, the integrity of the Government that I serve and the integrity of civil servants within the Ministry of Works and Engineering. These kinds of comments can easily be characterised as mischievous and evil."

Mr. Burgess fired back against claims Government ignored suggestions from their technical advisers, and said: "Mr. Dennis should know that Cabinet is not obliged to accept the recommendations of the technical team, nor is it obliged to accept the lowest bidder.

"On occasion, matters unknown to the technical committee are taken into consideration by Cabinet, matters that lead Cabinet to the decision that it would be in the best interests of the community as a whole if a contract is awarded to one bidder rather than another. There is nothing improper or unethical about that process. And the former Auditor General knows that."

Mr. Burgess said he had "zero-tolerance" for wrongdoings within the Ministry's operation and added: "We have nothing to hide. It is for that reason that when the former Auditor General wrote in January of this year to inform me that he was to conduct a value-for-money audit of the Magistrates' Court/Hamilton Police Station construction project, I instructed my Permanent Secretary to advise him we would cooperate fully."

"It was only when we suspected that the former Auditor General was not conducting the audit fairly or ethically that we withdrew from the process, albeit for a short period."