"Tremendous cost overruns" on capital projects are partly to blame for Bermuda's rising debt, according to Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards.

He told the House of Assembly on Friday that though Government gained hard assets when it completed such developments, it was guilty of wasting cash on them.

"If you have something, a school building, that should cost $80 or $90 million and it comes in at $120 million, then that extra money that was spent goes somewhere," he said. "That extra money is wastage."

He added: "If you waste millions of dollars doing it, then the people of Bermuda get less than what they paid for. It's this spending on capital projects that's part of the problem."

He said overspending on projects like the Dockyard pier involved "real money" and was not just theoretical.

Mr. Richards said Finance Minister Paula Cox should not compare Bermuda with countries like the UK or Switzerland in relation to debt, because they are so dissimilar to here.

"The UK can print its own money," said the UBP politician. "In Switzerland, they have got so many reserves that they have built up."

He claimed, during the motion to adjourn, that the reason Government needed to increase its debt was because of a "lack of prudence".

"The people that are going to have to sustain our debt is our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren."

Acting Environment and Sports Minister Zane DeSilva interjected from his chair at that point: "What's wrong with that?"

Mr. Richards spoke about the official unemployment rate of 4.5 percent released by Government on Thursday.

He said the rate was based on a survey done in the middle of last year, adding: "A lot has happened since the middle of last year and not any of it good. I'm sure more people have become unemployed since then."

The Shadow Minister said the Island had always had "over employment" so there had been no need to track unemployment in the past.

Mr. Richards said international business was the sector in which there was the most chance of creating more jobs. He called on Government to do more to attract overseas companies to the Island.

"We really need to have effective initiatives to help increase international business in Bermuda," he said. "Quite frankly, some of those initiatives need not cost the Government any money at all."