The Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) last night hit back at the tirade of abuse thrown by Tourism and Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb and claimed she got her facts wrong.

Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Erwin Adderley said claims in Parliament last Friday that the former Government had never ensured performance bonds were in place for major building projects was wrong.

Ms Webb accused the UBP and others of institutionalised racism and said the only reason questions had been asked over the performance bond of the $70 million Berkeley Institute site was because the general contractors were black.

She said the UBP always expected blacks to fail.

But Mr. Adderley said that was not the case.

“On this issue, Ms Webb was loud, strong....but wrong. She misled the public and the House of Assembly,” said Mr. Adderley.

“She mentioned projects at the Airport, the incinerator, CedarBridge and Westgate as contracts for which no performance bonds had been put in place. This is not true.”

Mr. Adderley said contractors had confirmed that performance bonds, which act as a form of financial security or insurance for projects, had been in place for all of those jobs.

He said:

A bond was in place for two projects at the airport, one in 1988 and the other in 1996, both carried out by BCM McAlpine;

A performance and completion bond were in place for the incinerator project, which was carried out by Gringley Construction, in conjunction with Danish firm Phils;

There was a ten percent performance bond in place on the management contract for CedarBridge, and similar securities were required for subcontractors; and

There was no bond originally for the Westgate site, but midway through the project, Sealand Construction, was asked and did provide a security to guarantee the performance.

The bond is put in place to act as a form of protection to those paying for the project - in the case of all Government jobs that is the tax payer.

They act as insurance should the contractor be unable to carry out his part of the bargain, or if a contractor underbids, he can then be forced to pay a penalty.

Mr. Adderley said: “Ms Webb reminded the House of Assembly at least three times on Friday that she was a bright woman. That may be true, but she doesn't do her homework and her allegations were false.

“We believe her remarks were a smokescreen for what is happening on the Berkeley project.

“We hope members of the Smith Government will not continue to hide behind accusations of racism. It is not good enough for Ms Webb to use allegations of racism, whether institutional or otherwise, to cover up inadequacies in her own performance and that of the Smith Government.”

Mr. Adderley said it was never the UBP who first brought up the issue of the performance bond for Berkeley. He said Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott first spoke to it when he announced that Pro-Active was the general contractor and said an insurance company had been formed specifically to put up a bond.

However, it was then claimed that the Bermuda Industrial Union had been the provider of the insurance. That has never been confirmed and Government has refused to reveal where the bond came from, leaving the Opposition to suspect that there was never one in place.

“We believe the Smith Government should now tell the public what happened to the establishment of that company, whether a bond was ever put in place, and if one was, who, precisely, provided it and what its terms are,” said Mr. Adderley.

Ms Webb has run into controversy this week after stating in Parliament that she wanted people “who look like me” to win Government contracts.

She said, for too long, the majority of Government contracts were awarded to whites and friends of the UBP, meaning blacks had never shared in the wealth of the Island.

But she said the Progressive Labour Party wanted to change the economic paradigm of the Island.

At first, she said she was speaking both for herself and Government.

However, she later said that that was how her Ministries operated, although economic empowerment was on an “ad hoc” basis throughout Government.

She said she wanted to see it as mainstream Government policy.

But Mr. Scott has denied that colour has anything to do with the tendering of contracts in his department and said Ms Webb was not speaking for him when she made her comments.

As a result, the Bermuda Employers' Council has asked Premier Jennifer Smith to clarify Government's position.

The Royal Gazette has for two days asked Government to respond officially this week, but no statement has so far been forthcoming. Ms Webb was not available for comment last night.