Bermuda’s “soaring debt” has accumulated thanks to “pork barrel politics”, according to Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards.He told the House of Assembly on Friday the Island had hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public debt because of huge overspends on capital projects and contracts not being properly tendered.The One Bermuda Alliance MP was responding to comments made the previous week by Premier and Finance Minister Paula Cox, who said Bermuda’s debt should be seen in terms of investment, which “gives best value to the country”.Mr Richards said that wasn’t true, citing the new Berkeley Institute and Transport Control Department buildings and the new Dockyard pier as examples of overspent projects.He also noted that Government wrote off a $6.8 million loan owed to it by the Bermuda Industrial Union and claimed overseas consultants had netted hundreds of millions of dollars with contracts not put out to tender. “Are these the investments the Minister is referring to?” asked Mr Richards. “These are not investments, these are what our neighbours in the US call pork barrel politics.“They are not investments, they are pork, and pork is the most expensive meat you can buy. It costs millions and millions.”Mr Richards explained the term “pork barrel politics” referred to when politicians spent money to win votes. He said Government had no real plan to pay back public debt and refused to admit that a significant portion of the debt was “incurred from wastage on pork”.The Opposition member described Bermuda as like a “hamster on the treadmill” because it was making payments to the Sinking Fund, as required by law, with borrowed funds.Mr Richards said the Government Loans Act 1978 required an amount equivalent to 2.5 percent of public debt to be set aside in the Sinking Fund each year for paying off that debt.He said Government had a current account deficit so needed to borrow money to cover the day-to-day running of the country and make the Sinking Fund contributions.“When the Minister of Finance of this country tells Bermudians that they are going to pay down the debt with contributions to the Sinking Fund, without mentioning the fact that they have to borrow money to make those contributions: is that being straight with the public?”He said as a result the amount of public debt, which is almost $1 billion, was not decreasing.“It’s like we are on a treadmill going nowhere. We are like the hamster running on the treadmill.”Closing the debate, the Premier said debt itself was not necessarily good or bad and that international bodies have determined that Bermuda’s level of debt is sustainable.“We have got to look at the big picture and look at how we are going to move the country forward and the people with it,” she said.“This Government means business and it’s about business and it’s doing the people’s business, let there be no doubt about it.”