Chartered accountant Craig Mayor, a persistent critic of the airport redevelopment project, returned to the Public Accounts Committee yesterday, saying the Bermuda Government’s “methodology is nonsense, and the results are nonsense”.

Meanwhile, the committee agreed to a motion to summon Aaron Adderley, the head of the Department of Airport Operations, if he should decline to appear before the PAC’s sitting next week. Wayne Furbert, the chairman of the committee, said the group wanted Mr Adderley to give a breakdown of spending to maintain the present terminal — as well as to explain “why we can’t just fix the roof”. Mr Mayor told the PAC that the Government had failed to look at the incremental costs for a new terminal, which he said would run at $787 million.

Thus, the Government model of $580 million had erred by more than $200 million by failing in basic accounting, he said, telling the PAC: “It’s a rule. Don’t be puzzled by it.”

However, he faced scepticism from committee members Susan Jackson and Leah Scott, with Ms Jackson calling it “a fairytale” presentation — and Ms Scott telling him: “I’m not an accountant, but I don’t agree with your analysis.” Mr Furbert defended Mr Mayor’s numbers as conservative and deriving from the Government’s own figures.

Mr Mayor told the PAC that the island’s economic position was too precarious to proceed with the proposal, suggesting the present terminal could be renovated and protected with an enhanced berm that would keep it viable for 30 years at just $44 million in actual cost.

An audience member handed in a written question asking: “Surely the Minister of Finance has worked extensively in finance markets, and CCC and Aecon have also operated at the highest level of global finance — what explains this abandonment of what you describe as proper methodology?”

Mr Mayor said the figures had been prepared by the ministry and not its Canadian partners in the proposal.