The Bermuda Industrial Union has set up an insurance company to handle a $6.8 million bond for the company which won the contract to build the new Berkeley school in Pembroke, The Royal Gazette has learned.

Opposition MP Michael Dunkley questioned the need for the secrecy surrounding the issue in the House of Assembly on Friday, after inquiries about the contract went unanswered earlier this month.

The Ministry of Works & Engineering promised transparency in the tendering process but Minister Alex Scott told the media to refer to ProActive Management Systems Limited as to who was insuring the project.

Calls to ProActive went unanswered.

The Royal Gazette, acting on information from an anonymous source, asked BIU President Derrick Burgess if the union had formed an insurance company to back ProActive.

Mr. Burgess said he would not comment on hearsay and rumour and the BIU's business was it's own business.

Industry insiders had told The Royal Gazette that no one would back ProActive and Government delayed the contract announcement for five weeks.

Mr. Dunkley questioned the secrecy surrounding the BIU's $6.8 million bond.

He said, when he asked Mr. Burgess about the bond, "the question met with silence two weeks ago, today".

Mr. Burgess told The Worker's Voice, a BIU publication: "People like Dunkley are always concerned when the workers come together to empower ourselves financially."

Mr. Burgess said Mr. Dunkley's goal is to divide and conquer the workers.

Mr. Dunkley told The Royal Gazette that is a "typical" comment from Mr. Burgess.

He said: "I have no problem with the BIU setting up an insurance company. However, they should make sure they can protect the assets of the members they're there to serve.

"It doesn't matter what the other side is saying. They (Mr. Burgess) say we want to divide and conquer.

"It's strange to him that a shadow Minister from the Bermuda party, and white, is coming forward with this.

"As an elected representative, I have to speak out when it's appropriate to do so. I have to give opinion, thought and feedback.

"If Mr. Burgess would stop shooting the messenger, he could say that he's doing this, or that," Mr. Dunkley added.

Mr. Burgess felt threatened and those comments were to prevent BIU members from listening to someone they normally don't, said Mr. Dunkley.

Mr. Burgess could not be reached because he is off the Island for the next week.

During Mr. Dunkley's speech on Saturday, MP Delaey Robinson caused Government MPs to burst with laughter when he suggested Mr. Dunkley should run for office in the BIU.

Government backbencher and former BIU president, Ottiwell Simmons, called the former UBP government "carnivorous".

"The former government wanted to take all the materials from the BIU," he added.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome said: "We don't have to run to the banks, to the foreign companies. We have labour backing labour government. All Bermudians need to be proud.