The Berkeley scandal deepens

The allegations made by former Berkeley project engineer Gabriel Martel in Friday’s Mid Ocean News will do little to restore public faith in the competence and honesty of some of those involved in the beleaguered project.

Mr. Martel alleges that the new school is in breach of dozens of safety regulations that would cost millions of dollars to fix; that the Government attempted to suppress a report he wrote highlighting these failures, and had him fired and kicked off the Island because of it; and that a senior civil servant deliberately delayed work on the project to push up costs.

Mr. Martel’s explanation of why he was fired seems to rest on hearsay. “Apparently [Works and Engineering project manager David Butterfield] indicated to Somers that if I wasn’t removed, Somers would not get the next project,” he said. However his observations of the safety breaches were made first-hand, just over a month ago. This ought to make them easy to verify or disprove.

Because of the potential consequences, you would have thought that Minister of Works and Engineering, Lt. Col. David Burch, would have treated the allegations with the utmost seriousness. Instead, he attempted to discredit both Mr. Martel (characterising him as a “disgruntled employee”) and the Mid Ocean News. (I find it ironic that the man who is happy to call people “house niggers” was apparently too squeamish to utter the words “Mid Ocean News”, instead referring to the paper as “that rag” and “that thing that comes out on a Friday”.)

The “disgruntled employee” explanation is improbable because Mr. Martel catalogued his complaints before he was fired. And if Col. Burch believes that the Mid Ocean has got its facts wrong, he should sue them.

However Col. Burch did eventually acknowledge that Mr. Martel’s claims warrant further investigation. “Clearly we will look at those and it will be for all of those organisations to answer,” he said when pressed.

By chance, Friday was also the day that Finance Minister Paula Cox revealed that the total cost of the project has risen to $125 million. However that figure still doesn’t include some of the costs incurred as a result on the ongoing arbitration process with the original contractor, ProActive Management.

The latest allegations come just weeks after the results of the police investigation into the ProActive performance bond were passed to the DPP. The investigation, initiated by the Auditor General in January 2003, was to find out what happened to the $700,000 of public money that ProActive were supposed to use to purchase a performance bond - essentially a $7 million insurance policy. Despite the massive cost overruns on the project, originally budgeted at $68 million, it is believed that no claim has yet been made against the bond.

Could there be further police investigations as a result of Mr. Martel's claims?

Comments

[sandgrownan on 18.02.06 at 18:08]

Berkeley may have been budgeted at $68 million, but the lowest bid was $62.9. The total (current) figure is almost twice that amount.

Apart from safety concerns, the alleged fraud, incompetance and governmental lies, that's $62 million of OUR money firttered away. From when Alex was the Minister of W&E, to Ashfield and now the idiot Burch, the whole thing has been a complete fuckup. I guess the reason that the public outcry isn't deafening is because so many have been on the gravy train.

$62 million!!...think of the low cost homes that could have been built, or perhaps send every single student abroad for a college education, or even give the Salvation Army a few coins.

A national disgrace, and Burch can't even muster the decency to answer a question. What a bunch of complete twats.

[Pissingitaway on 18.02.06 at 18:26]

Government spending has gone up 80 percent - nearly double - in the 8 years the PLP have been in power. There is no fiscal restraint or accountability - seriously, they wonder who give a rats behind about the cost overruns. Money grows on trees, right?

Should there ever be a bad recession, it would get ugly as now 10 % of the population work for Government. If the tax base shrank, how would they be sustained?

[thisgrassman on 18.02.06 at 18:27]

Lets go way back to the beginning when Alex Scott justified his selection of Pro-Active. He made alot of noise about how money was included in the costs to train Bermudians on the job. So 125 mil later we see images in the media of electrical work that any layperson would condemn unsafe. That is not what I thought when he said job training

Last time I checked planning were paid a fee to send inspectors out to job sites to make sure work was built to code.

What a fucking nightmare

[Flagpole sitter on 18.02.06 at 21:51]

Are there any forensic accountants on this blog? It would be interesting to learn more about the money trail.

Between the $60 million (and counting) overspend on Berkeley and the $49 million in loans just announced in the budget speech as "written off" at at BHC, this represents almost 20% of the nation's GDP. Where did this money go?

Judging by these figures, Bermuda's biggest source of wealth generation may not be international business.

Just because Government is a poor steward of the public purse does not mean that the money went to money heaven. Somebody got paid and didn't give back to Government what they were expected to deliver. The reason why is secondary. So where is it that all that money went to? Is it still on the Island? If not, how did it get off and where did it go to? Surely there is a paper trail for over $100 million. While the taxpayer has not had value for his money, somebody made out. Who? It may not even be a local person.

It's probably only a small number of people who benefitted from this mismanagement and perhaps corruption. But looking at the figures involved, it's possible that these cost over runs and write offs could have created over 100 new millionaires with no good explanation for how they attained that status. And who were possibly no more deserving than any other Bermudian of such a windfall.

[James on 19.02.06 at 07:29]

Well the rumours around are that trucks would leave the docks and other areas full of materials and supplies headed for the Berkeley site and only show up half or three quaters full. So where did it go?
All those problems stated by Gabriel Martel should easily be checked by an independant inspecter who can tour the facility with the minister,education minister, the oppostion ministers and the obudsmen along with the W&E Chief Engineer to explain everything. Sounds easy huh, will it happen? NOOOOOOPEEE, well I highly doubt it.
Well it is going to be interesting to see the spin to get out of this one. Wonder if the UBP can be blamed for this one too?

[Bill Cook on 19.02.06 at 13:09]

According to Mrs Laverne Furbert a regular caller to the talk shows largely supporting the policies and administration skills of the PLP she assured Mrs Shirley Dill this morning that Mr Martel was in fact fired for breaking lights at the Berkeley school and was caught on camera doing so!

If true this is surely a criminal offense ?

There seemed a lot of talk on this subject all morning and it seems that some sort of independent inquiry will need to take place to satisfy the tax payers who are paying for all this,and one hopes that the truth will emerge as these charges are serious if true and serious if false allegations have been made.

[Epiphyte on 19.02.06 at 13:24]

I agree with Flagpole Sitter - 'Follow the money' as they said in the film 'All the President's Men'. If The Washington Post could investigate Watergate with a couple of young journalists and bring down the corrupt Nixon Government, it is not inconceivable that the Mid Ocean News could do the same. I would like to think that the Mid Ocean News have the determination to do it. They seem good at digging up the stories but very few seem to be aggressively followed up and tend to disappear into a black hole(perhaps because there are so many). Let's hope their diary system works and they remember to keep pestering the DPP about the Performance Bond case.

The Performance Bond seems to be the weakest link in all of this. I wonder if the new hotel developer at St George's will have one imposed on him? Why don't the members of the BIU question how their contributions are being used? Accounts for the BIU are still not forthcoming - another mystery in what is becoming a quagmire of misinformation, murkiness and procrastination. Do we know who is behind Pro-Active? I can't recall anyone giving a clear idea of who they are.

Sadly, following the money trail may prove difficult since Alex Scott himself said: "we are not in the practice of . . . giving receipts for everything." Anyone who works in the private sector, and, for that matter, the public sector outside Bermuda, will know it's impossible to get any expense through the books without some tangible evidence of the expenditure in the form of invoice or whatever.

20% of our GDP - it just doesn't bear thinking about. This is out of control and yet there seems to be very little public outcry. Let's hope it comes at the ballot box - I don't think I can bear another term of The Man or The Burch.

[loki on 19.02.06 at 13:33]

"According to Mrs Laverne Furbert a regular caller to the talk shows largely supporting the policies and administration skills of the PLP she assured Mrs Shirley Dill this morning that Mr Martel was in fact fired for breaking lights at the Berkeley school and was caught on camera doing so!"

I wouldn't attach any credibility to anything that awful woman says. She's notorious for making unsubstantiated allegations.

[Turtle on 19.02.06 at 16:41]

Perhaps the lights broke while Mr. Martel was testing them to make sure they were securely attached?????????

[Bald Eagle on 19.02.06 at 20:35]

This really is beyond belief.

When a construction bid is prepared it is normally based on an extensive set of detailed drawings and specifications for a project of this magnitude. If they were so inadequate as to be a factor in the gross overruns on this project then we can only assume that they were sketchily prepared on a roll of toilet paper.
Did the civil servants involved in the preparation of contract documents allow that to happen? If we give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that there was a reasonably accurate set of documents then why wasn't ProActive held to its contractual obligation to provide the work at the cost it agreed to? And when it failed and Somers took over why wasn't the balance of the work tied up to firm prices based on that same set of documents?
Was it that the details had been obscured during the early days of this job, the same paper having been repeatedly used to mop up the brown stuff that has been served up as excuses for this gross misuse of public funds?
Moving on to other generally accepted possibilities for cost overruns ( but certainly never of the magnitude experienced in this project) there could have been circumstances not reasonably foreseen at the time the contractor bid the job, such as poor conditions below ground demanding drastic redesign of the foundations. Did anyone notice a problem such as this at the site in the early days?
Let's face it, there cannot possibly be a legitimate excuse for the doubling in cost of this project.
Will a Bermudian newspaper such as the Mid Ocean News at last have the guts to dig deep into the facts surrounding this fiasco and give the Bermudian public some facts to digest?
As someone above suggested, how about starting with who the beneficial owners of ProActive were at the start of the project?

[Saltus on 19.02.06 at 22:52]

Saltus has built a new SGY building and new classrooms in a rather large building in less than ONE YEAR! An old building was knocked down, the rock face was cut into, and everything has gone by within the given time frame. It obviously isnt to the scale and magnitude of Berkley but we were told one year by the heads of the school and that is what we got. No bs at all. What is funny is that Saltus will probably get to use the facilities before Berkley has been completley handed over...

[ken on 20.02.06 at 09:08]

How many times must we re-discuss the fact that Berkeley is overbudget and over-time? It is obvious! We all know it! The PLP government knows it was a mess-up. They know everything went wrong. Minister Burch has said this in the plainest language possible. It will never be back on schedule, and it will never cost what was forecast. What can we do about it now? Nothing.

But the allegations being made by this man, in the tabloidish friday paper are totally separate issues. I cannot believe that Minister Burch & former Minister Devent, the Department of Planning, all the independent firms hired to work on the site, the Berkeley Educational Society, the Berkeley Trustees etc...i cannot believe that all these organizations would have seen the work as it progressed, and allowed half-ass work to continue at the potential risk to the staff and students. To me it is a non-issue. Yes maybe this man's allegations should be looked into, but sometimes you have to consider the source of the allegations and his credibility or lack thereof. For all these groups to have conspired together to take shortcuts and potentially harm the students/staff/guests of Berkeley, it would have taken a massive conspiracy. And we know, that in these times, if the government was to embark on such a conspiracy it would've been front page news.

So criticize the length of time and the incorrect budgeting all you want. But by criticizing the job done, you are not only criticizing the Minister's, you are criticizing the architects, the masons, the electricians, the plumbers, the interior decorators, the labourers and more.

It is more sensationalism on the part of that newspaper that prints lies upon lies on a weekly basis.

[sandgrownan on 20.02.06 at 09:43]

Is Ken none other than David Burch?

[silencedogood on 20.02.06 at 09:48]

I agree with Ken! There's no need for concern. Why try to validate or refute these allegations even if they are easy to investigate? ¡

Why should we question how the public's money is (ab)used? It's not as though its relating to educating the next generation...er...scratch that. ¡

I feel sad for all of you who have no trust in your hearts for the PLP. It's not as though they are 3 or 4 times over budget. It is only double the budget for a total of over $100 million--hell, it's a mega school. It needs a mega budget. You are just judging the efforts by colonialist standards. That's wrong!¡

Let's kill two birds with one stone--Make Berkeley into a school for the blind. Ken and I will be in attendance. Then no one will need the lights with faulty wiring.

[ken on 20.02.06 at 09:59]

Sandgrownan & Silencedogood

Who I am matters much less than what I am writing.
Tell me this, if so much was wrong with this building, why did this 'credible' source not say anything prior to being dismissed. If he is such a credible source, shouldn't he be held accountable as the on site person responsible.

It is really laughable at times how you all latch on to anything just to further discredit the government on the berkeley issue. I wonder if sometimes you all really believe the rhetoric that you write.

I tried to give this site the benefit of doubt as an open forum for discussion, but the topics and how they are worded, and also the participation of most of you that are blinded by your hatred for the personalities in the government, rather than their actual abilities, make it hard to even participate sometimes.

I wonder what most of you will do if and when the PLP do win the next election yet again. U will have tried your damndest to boot them out, and they will successfully have won again, and there will be no more tricks up your proverbial sleeves.

[Rossini on 20.02.06 at 09:59]

Now kids, play nicely. The amusement provided by this site should have Limey retiring from the sale of tickets...this stuff is priceless. I notice the call (well the whisper) by Jamahl Simmons and Kim Swan for a Bermuda-style truth and reconciliation commission. I should pause and say I hope Limey posts something on that for us to discuss....I would love to read the "why we don;t need that" argument on here. But I digress. One thing that truth and reconciliation commission could do is expose some old fashioned Bermuda truths that might make the Berkeley thing loook like child's play. A few examples from our rich history of fair play and equality.1. All the government cars came from HWP with Sir John Plowan and John Irving Pearman at the helm...and at Transport at the same time....Jack Sharpe was in that mix to don't forget....2. Then we had Quinton Edness' airport...someone retired off that one....a Departures Terminal with no bathrooms....3.Then we turn to the rental first of Global House from Tony Smith...Tim's Dad...and then the purchase of the building for $10m.....Look at that, three good ones and no mention of Sealand required.....

Ah the good old days when the theft and pilfering, the conflict of interest was right where it belonged....with the UBP and its gang...how dare the PLP emulate them by helping out their own....shame on them.

Did I mention the supply of uniforms for government workers coming from English Sports Shop and never even being put out to tender....??

yours in nostalgia.....

[Simon on 20.02.06 at 10:07]

Ken,
I think you'll find this guy was fired as a result of a report he produced as part of his job outlining all the issues that the Mid-Ocean published on Friday. The report was hushed up and so he decided that since he had nothing to lose as he was being kicked out of Bermuda, he might as well try to bring this to the public's attention.

[ken on 20.02.06 at 10:10]

Simon

I will wait to hear that confirmed by a credible source. In my opinion, the friday paper is not credible. Also if things were going wrong that could potentially cause a 'death trap' this guy should have raised holy hell when it was actually taking place...i.e. during the 5 years of construction. Lord knows he had enough time. Why wait until the school is basically ready to reveal all the so-called problems?

[Simon on 20.02.06 at 10:21]

As I understand it, he was employed recently specifically to do the job Govt decided he had to be sacked for.

[Rossini on 20.02.06 at 10:25]

Wow.....You guys have really got to help me here.....how does a newspaper report take on the instant ring of truth ?? There must be something in the water in this country that makes believers out of readers. Doesn't anyone stop and think and reason for themselves ? Clearly not...I think this explains why it is that they publish such trash, they know they have some receptive vessels into which this claptrap can be poured. Look at this....Simon has the guy sacked by government because of a report etc. Guys, here's a question for you....in all the words in the Mid-Ocean article, do they once quote from the report, do they say they have a copy or do they quote the man himself....just askin...

[Guilden M. Gilbert, Jr. on 20.02.06 at 10:31]

Rossini,

Very well said and very true but rest assured you will get the "they did it so I guess its ok for the PLP to do it" response. That is the only response some persons can come up with when the corruptions of the UBP are mentioned.

[Walla on 20.02.06 at 10:34]

"Ah the good old days when the theft and pilfering, the conflict of interest was right where it belonged....with the UBP and its gang...how dare the PLP emulate them by helping out their own....shame on them."

Does this make it right? Do you really want us to be stuck in a rut forever sir/madame?

[thisgrassman on 20.02.06 at 10:38]

Ah the good old days when the theft and pilfering, the conflict of interest was right where it belonged....with the UBP and its gang...how dare the PLP emulate them by helping out their own....shame on them.

Posted by Rossini on 20.02.06 at 09:59

This is fucking scary. The UBP made out like bandits so now its the PLP's turn? Thank you Rossini for having the balls to state the actual mindset of those in power - instead of the Social Agenda, Sustainable Development bollocks we are usually fed.

Its just one set of parasites replaced by another lot of lazy inept bloodsuckers.

[ken on 20.02.06 at 10:41]

I just find it very scary that one person can make so far unsubstantiated claims to a tabloid newspaper (which is what it has become), and everyone panics and runs..."the sky is falling, the sky is falling".

[Rossini on 20.02.06 at 10:42]

Walla, I hate ruts as much as the next man...but what I hate more are revisionist historians who spend their days (and posts) trying to convince the people of Bermuda that history began on the 9th of November 1998. Most of the people on here don't care about the past, they just want it back. Let me provide you a useful comparison which is so ironic it is beautiful. Watch what happens with the new Bank of Bermuda building on Front Street.....I hate to say it but just like the old days, it looks like the Bank will get whatever it wants.....now, where was this chorus of disapproval years ago when the Bank did just the same..."got whatever it wanted"....I wonder what the difference is now...hmmmmmmmmm

[sandgrownan on 20.02.06 at 10:43]

62 million dollars over budget. 62 million. Guilden, Rossini, Ken and other PLP apologists, we're not talking about a few bricks here and there for soemone's patio - we're talknig 62 million dolalrs. DOesn't this bother you? Where did all this money go? Fraud? Theft? At absolute best it's incompetance. if only 50% of this chaps report is true, Burch and co have a duty to explain to us how they fucked up losing 62 million dollars of our money.

I don't give a toss what the UBP did, it's irrelevant. What matters is what is happening now.

[Simon on 20.02.06 at 10:43]

Government corruption is endemic to all third world countries - why should Bermuda be any different?

[Rossini on 20.02.06 at 10:45]

grassman, you just took the first step towards your healing...by saying the words UBP and bandits in the same sentence....congratulations. For the record I don't support graft and corruption by anyone....but this model of government seems to have been just fine with everyone until someone else starting benefitting...now its called corruption...before 1998 it seems to have been "good government". Its the amnesia I find so ironic.

[Tiger Bay on 20.02.06 at 10:45]

Let the Government Auditor appoint a third party to review the guy's report, and confirm to Bermuda that Berkeley is properly built.

[Guilden M. Gilbert, Jr. on 20.02.06 at 10:48]

Thisgrassman,

Why is what Rossini stated being taken as his supporting the actions of the PLP Government? Are we to simply forget about the corruption that occurred under the UBP because it is no longer the Government?

Many people on this blog claim that the UBP is a viable option to replace the PLP as government, that being the case its history should be revealed so that the electorate can better assess if the UBP is infact a viable option.

I do not recall anyone saying that the UBP made out like bandits, therefore, it is only right that the PLP do it as well. Although I am a PLP supporter I have no problems taking them to task for their failings but the UBP also has a history that needs to be revealed. The facts are the facts and it is hightime the rug is lifted to reveal that the "good ole" UBP was not "clean" in its actions.

There are many on this blog who claim that whent he UBP was in government they were too young to be politically aware. As one becomes politically aware the histories behind the political options should be known so that the decision made at the polls is not made without full knowledge of the options available.

[Tiger Bay on 20.02.06 at 10:49]

Chewbacca defense.

[ken on 20.02.06 at 10:53]

62 million dollars!!! 62 million dollars!!!
Of course it is wrong, and of course it angers and bothers even the most ardent PLP supporter. However, what can be done about it now???? NOTHING. All we can hope is that with the next capital project i.e. the police station, that things are run smoothly. If not u have the option of booting the PLP out.

But criticizing the government for their lack of fiscal discipline in building Berkeley is one thing...criticizing the ethics and abilities of the workers on the projects and insinuating that they building is going to collapse etc is totally different.

No one is saying that because certain PLP members are perceived to be benefiting monetarily that it is ok...but in the past when the UBP biggers made off like bandits, i am sure most of you all were not taking them to task as you do the PLP.

[sandgrownan on 20.02.06 at 10:53]

this has nothing to do with the UBP!! Jeez. We're talking baout 62 million dollars of public money spent creating, possibly, a less than perfect product.

why can't Burch and Alex show us the paper trail?

[sandgrownan on 20.02.06 at 10:59]

Ken your naivety is staggering. So, there was no pilfering, working slow to extend the time of jobs, over billing, etc etc. Oh OK..perhaps you're right. Maybe the original quote was just wrong.

[Walla on 20.02.06 at 10:59]

Rossini thanks for the reply, i dont disagree with what you are saying. In my humble opinion using the words 'government' and 'corruption' are synonymous with each other. It will never change (well not in my life time).

[ken on 20.02.06 at 11:01]

I do believe there was stealing, working slow, etc...I believe all of that and I do not agree with any of that. However, the issue on the table is the soundness of the product...not the cost. What is the point of re-debating the cost of the project?? We know it is well over budget. That is irrelevant to the issue of whether it will fall down and collapse.

[Guilden M. Gilbert, Jr. on 20.02.06 at 11:03]

Sandgrownan,

"Guilden, Rossini, Ken and other PLP apologists"

Please show me where I have ever been a PLP apologists. I have taken the PLP to task when I beleive it to be necessary, case in point, see my last letter to the editor in the Mid Ocean where I took the party to task over the Col. "Uncle Tom" comments.

Just because for the most part we hold differing views of the PLP does not make me an apologist for the party.

I agree that the Berkeley project has been a total disaster and I agree that the PLP Government has much to answer for over this project. However, as Ken said, anytime anything negative is printed about the PLP which has not been substantiated you and others take it as gospel.

I don't recall the same level of backlash when the prison, incinerator, airport, etc. were overdue and overbudget. I don't recall the smae level of backlash when the UBP restructured the public school system which today is failing the country as was predicted by some of us.

You and other will very quickly condemn the PLP but you and others were completely silent when the UBP had its disasters.

[RedOnion on 20.02.06 at 11:04]

I read the MON article, and as someone with an engineering background I find it hard to believe that so many things could be wrong on the Berkeley site. It's quite possible that there is some exaggeration in the report.

Having said that, I do think that Col. Burch, as the Minister now responsible for this, should realize that even if he doesn't read the MON himself, that many other people do. It really would be sad to think that the people know more than the Minister. Bona-fide newspaper (whatever that means) or not, Col Burch now has the responsibility to clear the matter up, which I believe he will do without shooting the messenger. Hopefully he is confident enough in this project that he can appoint a truly independant investigation into the job, and sooner rather than later, we wouldn't want too much time to elapse before the investigation, at least not enough time to fix the problems first.

[Tiger Bay on 20.02.06 at 11:04]

The report alleges that the same mismanagement that led to the cost overruns has also led to a structure that does not meet building code and may even be structurally unsound.

That possibility bears investigation, not evasion and coverup.

[ken on 20.02.06 at 11:04]

sandgrowman,

i am naive, but u are believing a paper that is notorious for its tabloid reporting and lack of corroboration...hmmm...pot calling kettle?

[Bill Cook on 20.02.06 at 11:08]

I think Somers construction hired and fired Mr Martel and he was only here for 4 months or so not 5 yrs.

The story was in the MO on Friday.

It should not be difficult to confirm or deny the allegations he made.

I for one do not give a rats ass about the political party but I do care where my money went and is still going and someone needs to stop the bleeding.

If the MO is a can of RAID and the Berkley Perps are roaches thats a good thing but there should be consequences for printing something that can not be confirmed,freedom of the Press carries a heavy responsibility so we should all wait for greater clarification before jumping to conclusions much as we would like to nail Ringo Burch for his arrogance.

[Tiger Bay on 20.02.06 at 11:10]

Notorious for tabloid reporting? They have been uncannily accurate on most stories such as early revelations of the problems at Berkeley, Ewart's pay to play, BHC scandals, Stonington, etc etc etc.

[RedOnion on 20.02.06 at 11:16]

Funny that Ken should mention lack of corroboration. Col Burch refuses to even acknowledge them as a newspaper, let alone respond to their questions, so how can they corroborate anything when the man with the answers refuses to admit they exist?

[Rossini on 20.02.06 at 11:16]

Tiger Bay....you are too much....so the MON says it and we need to now have an independant investigation to disprove what they say ? You're the kind who call for this kind of thing and then criticise the cost once its done. I want an independant assessment of CedarBridge.....where five years after opening they were still having trouble. Let's see...Universal Electric put in the phone system and it took three years to take voice-mail messages......the electricians were recalled to fix a problem and found that the junction box they needed to repair was under a little bit of asphalt.....the extractor fan for the photo lab was channeled into a classroom...now when was that project again....??????

[Darkside on 20.02.06 at 11:19]

This real issue here is the safety of our children who will study in this building.

I truly hope that someone turns on everything in the building at 100% capacity at the same time and then lets it run it for a couple of days before they let a single child enter the building. If there is going to an electrical fire (as it seems is being suggested by this individual) then lets find out before risking our children in their place of study.

[Guilden M. Gilbert, Jr. on 20.02.06 at 11:21]

Tiger,

In today's RG is Col. Burch not quoted as say that answers will be forthcoming?

He quite rightly poses the question, "Does any sane person in this country truly believe that this Progressive Labour Party Government could get the professional engineers, architects and builders in the Ministry of Works and Engineering and Housing, Argus Insurance, Somers Construction company, the Bermuda Fire Service, the Department of Planning and the multitude of tradesmen working on the site of the new secondary senior school to conspire with us to ignore health and safety concerns?"

The problem is, you are so blinded by your distain for the PLP that you will believe any and everything negative that is said about the party.

Where was your voice when Mighty Max Burgess was involved in the steel company that held up progress at the airport? Where was your voice when the UBP spent $120 million plus and destroyed a perfectly good school system and created a system that most them refused to send their kids to? Where was your voice when the contractors from the prison had to be bailed out financially by the government?

[Tiger Bay on 20.02.06 at 11:43]

"Where was your voice when.."

It was in primary school. Just like yours.

[Full Fullish on 20.02.06 at 11:46]

Rossini -
"but this model of government seems to have been just fine with everyone until someone else starting benefitting...now its called corruption...before 1998 it seems to have been "good government". Its the amnesia I find so ironic."

Oh here we go again, cause the UBP did it back in the day, it's ok for the PLP to do it? This argument started off weak, now it's utter bullshit. Some of us, are a bit too young to either have known about the corruption back in the hay day of the UBP, or most importantly to proffited from it. (The 35 year olders or younger that is). Here's the model government I want. One that is for the good of the people, ALL of the people. Not just the black ones, or just the white ones, or whatever F'n colour, race or creed you wish to categorise, if such a thing makes you feel better. One that is accountable to The People (see above again). You happy with the shit that's going on as of late? How's that $2000 you just spent on Berkeley? Guess what, you still haven't finished paying, as that's the cost so far. You happy with this government taking on another capital project with overruns and scandals that we've seen on their first one? Sorry I demand better from my government...we all should.

[Full Fullish on 20.02.06 at 11:53]

Guilden -
Hi there, long time no chat.

""Does any sane person in this country truly believe that this Progressive Labour Party Government could get the professional engineers, architects and builders in the Ministry of Works and Engineering and Housing, Argus Insurance, Somers Construction company, the Bermuda Fire Service, the Department of Planning and the multitude of tradesmen working on the site of the new secondary senior school to conspire with us to ignore health and safety concerns?"

Well with this, only time will tell. But what if it is true. More insane things have been known to happen. Since it IS $65Million over run in costs and what, 3 years behind schedule? I think we should all demand a public and independent inquirey.....cause with figures like that, something sure as hell is wrong. While they are rumours, I've heard far too many stories about procedures, thefts and the likes which are questionable, from tradespersons to turn a blind eye and we'd all be fools to do so.

Diligence, accountability and vigilence...that's all we ask for.

[Full Fullish on 20.02.06 at 11:59]

Guilden -
Oh and it wouldn't be the first time where Burch has said something that made him look stupid a few months later. As a matter of fact, stupid seems to be the only expression he has as of late.