Premier Ewart Brown yesterday described a report from the Auditor General on cost overruns at TCD as "strangely timed" and inaccurate.

However Auditor General Heather Jacobs Matthews last night defended the report and its release, saying: "I take my work very seriously and call it as I see it."

In a statement yesterday, Dr. Brown said the report released on Thursday should have been tabled in the House of Assembly before being released to the public.

And he said the report did not contain explanations offered by his Ministry for the cost overruns.

"The Auditor General's Reports are to go to the Speaker of the House, who in turn tables them for the House to consider," Dr. Brown said. "We're two weeks away from the first opportunity for that usual process, so I found this Report's timing and very media-based release strange.

"This reminds me of the style of the former Auditor General and it diminished the stature of the office when it's done that way.

"Commentary and sensational headlines based on the findings of the Report without the benefit of proper context or the full facts of the Ministry position do a disservice to the hard-working public officers of the Ministry and the Department who spent countless hours addressing these issues."

While he criticised elements of the report, he admitted that where there were departures from best practices, recommendations for stronger controls should be adopted.

"Where there have been errors and a departure from best practice, I expect accountability and accept that recommendations for improved oversight must be embraced."

Mrs. Jacobs Matthews denied that there was any significance to the timing of the report's release, saying it was released at the first possible opportunity.

"This audit was started in late 2009 immediately after my appointment. However due to staffing resources and the need to complete our statutory workload, this special report, in addition to several others, had to be put on the back burner.

"Once our draft was finalised, a meeting of the Audit Committee, which included the Minister of Finance, was convened on October 6 to discuss the report and shortly thereafter the report was sent to printing.

"The week of October 18 was the earliest opportunity I had to release the report."

While she said past Special Reports may have been tabled in the House of Assembly before being released, there is no requirement in either the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968 or the Audit Act 1990 to do so.

She said: "The Constitution makes no reference to Special Reports. However the Audit Act 1990 does — and it anticipates that an immediate report be made whether the House is in session or not."

In the report, Ms. Matthews said responsibility for the project, which had been budgeted at $5.3 million, was given to the Ministry of Transportation rather than Works and Engineering.

As the project moved ahead the costs nearly tripled, rising to $15.2 million as control was 'relinquished' to two private companies.

She said that the company that won the consulting contract to manage the project, Bermuda Emissions Control Ltd. (BECL), subcontracted work to Correia Construction Company Ltd without the work being put to tender.

Dennis Correia, a friend of Premier and Transport Minister Ewart Brown, owns a third of both firms, while Dr. Brown's cousin Donal Smith owns 40 percent of BECL.

Questioned about untendered work on the project in 2007, Government officials maintained that BECL was the only company with the specialist equipment and facilities required.

Following the release of the report on Thursday, Ms Matthews said: "The scope of our audit was limited to Government's handling of the project, which saw costs rise from $5 million to $15 million.

"This is only one aspect of this project that is under review in this report."

On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport however said it was not accurate to say what was priced at $5.3 million in 200½002 cost taxpayers $15 million.

"No account seems to be taken for basic increases in the costs of goods and services between the time the project was originally planned and the commencement of construction," said the spokesman.

"In fact, an examination of the Budget Books will reveal that before a penny of public money was spent the Ministry regularly and openly adjusted the proposed allocated funding to reflect such changes."

The Ministry also said that the operations contract was approved by Cabinet, and that evidence of that will be provided to the Auditor General.

"Change orders are a normal part of large construction projects, and in the case of the TCD facility, all such orders were documented, reviewed, justified and certified by an engineer with that authority," said the spokesperson.

"This seems to have been ignored by the Auditor General."