UNDER-FIRE Auditor General Larry Dennis received professional support yesterday from an accountants' umbrella group, after the verbal attacks made against him by Government politicians following his special report on the Berkeley Institute project.

Works & Engineering Minister Alex Scott accused Mr. Dennis of taking a "prejudiced" stand and of "editorialising" in his Berkeley report which reported that the $70-million project to build a new secondary school was months behind schedule.

And Bermuda Industrial Union leader Derrick Burgess suggested Mr. Dennis's conclusions had been influenced by racial considerations.

But yesterday Andrew Parsons, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bermuda (ICAB), spoke publicly in support of Mr. Dennis.

"We have been asked by members of of our institute if we willing to make comment in support of Mr. Dennis," said Mr. Parsons.

"The Institute maintains that Mr. Dennis is a member of good standing and has been since he became a member in 1980 and is a valued member of our profession.

"As a member of our profession, he is subject to our rules of professional conduct and those audits were carried out according to those rules.

"I'm not really in a position to comment on what any politician has said. But I can say that the Government Audit Committee considered the report and they considered it to be balanced."

Mr. Dennis concluded in his special audit report that there was little chance of the new school being finished by the target date of September this year and that he believed it would not be ready until most of the subsequent school year had passed.

And he has since passed his findings on to Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith after failing to secure information he has persistently requested from the Ministry of Works & Engineering.

Mr. Dennis rasied questions about why general contractor Pro-Active Management Systems Ltd. was given a $700,000 reimbursement to pay for a performance bond from Union Asset Holdings Ltd. when the Ministry of Works & Engineering had no receipt to prove that Pro-Active had actually parted with the cash.

The bond provides a type of insurance for the project and if the money was not used to pay the surety fee, then pro-Active would effectively have been given a $700,000 "interest-free cash advance" of taxpayers' money, said the Auditor.

Mr. Dennis has not received the receipt he has repeatedly requested from the ministry.

Mr. Parsons said Mr. Dennis had been well within his rights to request the document.

"We feel it is right that auditors should ask for documents, which they feel, in their professional opinion, are necessary to satisfy their review," said Mr. Parsons.

"To this end, Mr. Dennis was asking in a professional manner for what he considered necessary."

Among Mr. Scott's public comments following the Berkeley report was a sugestion that the position of the Auditor General - a position enshrined in the Constitution - should be reviewed.

"I think that is a constitutional question and needs to be addressed in that manner," said Mr. Parsons. "The Auditor General reports to the Governor."