The Opposition have blasted the veil of secrecy surrounding the financial backers behind the controversial Police/court building project. And it emerged last night that Winters Burgess, who was site manager for Pro-Active on the notorious Berkeley school project, is a shareholder in Landmark Lisgar – the construction company running the $78 million job now months behind schedule.

A register of share members lists Landmark boss Edmund Lee Matvey as owning 6,100 shares in Landmark Lisgar Construction while Paragon Trust Ltd. as trustee of the Caco Trust owns 3,900 shares.

Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin told The Royal Gazette: "It would be helpful if we knew who was behind the trust because if the whole thing goes belly up somebody has to be accountable. It's the public's money. There seems to be an attitude that Government can do this, that or the other, but the bottom line is Government is doing it on the taxpayer's behalf.

"It's almost scary to spend almost $80 million of taxpayers' money but we have no business asking who's getting it and who's to be held accountable if there are problems."

In an interview with The Royal Gazette last month Works and Engineering consultant Julian Hall said he was not at liberty to say who was behind the trust.

He added: "But you can reasonably assume its one or other of the two sides of the joint venture, there's a Canadian company Lisgar and a Bermudian element Landmark.

"Ninety percent or more of Bermuda companies are set up this way if only to avoid snoopy journalists finding out who owns the company."

Asked why people should be worried about people knowing who owns the company Mr. Hall said: "Because people don't want people to know their business, particularly in a Country like Bermuda where there is nothing but rumours.

"More people should run their companies under trusts, not less."

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said trusts weren't that unusual or necessarily worrying but more concerning was the failure to disclose who are the beneficiaries in a trust involving public money,

"Government should be able to give a valid reason to have accepted the bid from a company whose shareholders are a nameless, faceless trust."

She said the Progressive Labour Party Government had always promised to operate in the sunshine of public scrutiny.

"One must question whether the Finance Minister is comfortable with this secret arrangement, given that she is the stewardess of the public purse.

"After the Bermuda Housing debacle, the Berkeley Institute major squander, one would hope that more information would be forthcoming."

The building industry has been awash with rumours recently about who was involved in the trust and about the future of Lisgar.

Last night Winters Burgess said: "I am one of the directors in the company that is building it LLC."

And he admitted he was a shareholder. But asked about whether Canadian firm Lisgar were still involved he declined to comment and ended the conversation.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin wondered why Government was dishing out a large contract to someone who had been involved in Pro-Active which still owed it huge sums of money.

Government said recently it was still trying to recuperate more than $15 million from Pro-Active awarded in proceedings which began in 2004 after the firm claimed it was wrongfully dismissed from building the new Berkeley school.

Originally priced at $68 million, Berkeley eventually cost the taxpayer $125 million and came in three years late.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said: "If you owe me money and you haven't paid me and then I give you a great big project I would start to have my head examined."

But she added she had no qualms about Mr. Burgess' ability as a steel erector.

This week Dennis Correia again denied he was one of the backers behind the Landmark Lisgar trust and reiterated that he was simply doing some steel erection at the site on the junction of Court and Church streets.

"I think Landmark are going along fine and picking up pace."

Asked about rumours that Lisgar were on their way out Mr. Correia said: "I just know the Landmark guys are still there and I have been getting e-mails from some of the original estimators who were Lisgar's people. I don't know.

"I am assuming they are still there – some faces are missing but some faces are still there. I am assuming maybe they just got rid of some people."

Some in the building trade believe the structure should have been up by now but Mr. Correia said that was unfair.

"They have had a lot of issues with the foundations and very, very hard rock. That put our schedule back as far as steel erection goes."

Government has refused to confirm whether Landmark Lisgar had been the choice of its technical officers for the project.

Works and Engineering experts had been overruled when Pro-Active was chosen for the Berkeley project.

Recently Government appointed its own project supervisor to the Police/court building after blaming delays on managerial deficiencies and a faulty ground survey.

And Government also revealed recently that there is now no performance bond — even though Landmark Lisgar Construction had been required to give one.

A performance bond is similar to insurance — it can be called if a project is not finished, not done properly or not done on time.

Works and Engineering Minister Derrick Burgess had said the difficulty lay in the fact the funds underpinning the bond were based overseas. Retention funds have been put aside but Government has not revealed what that figure is.