THE Government's housing policy has been an "abject and abysmal failure" which has seen the waiting list for emergency housing grow over the past four years, Shadow Health & Family Services Minister Michael Dunkley said yesterday.

Mr. Dunkley gave a cautious welcome to moves by new Housing Minister Senator David Burch to address some of the problems at the strife-ridden Bermuda Housing Corporation.

He said this week's press conference in which Sen. Burch had promised Government would sue contractors who had been overpaid by the BHC was a start, but much more needed to be done - and quickly.

The revelation by Sen. Burch that many BHC contracts were verbal raised serious questions about why previously established practices had been changed, said Mr. Dunkley.

And the Shadow Minister also expressed concern over why BHC-built condos in Warwick remained empty while the number of those in need of affordable housing continued to grow.

"It's all well and good to sue the contractors, but it's not as if they walked into the Housing Corporation offices and took the money out of the safe - they were given the money," said Mr. Dunkley.

"If the Government is going after the contractors, let's hope they are also going after every single person who did not conduct business as it should have been done.

"Don't get me wrong, I am in full support of the police and their inquiry into the BHC, but at the end of the day justice must be seen to be done right down the line.

"Surely the responsibility goes right up the chain of command, the general manager, the board, the Minister and it goes right up to the Premier. I feel there are too many people taking no responsibility. You can't just shift the blame."

Mr. Dunkley, who first raised allegations of corruption at the BHC when he described the publicly funded organisation as "Bermuda's Enron" in the House of Assembly in March, was particularly concerned about the issue of verbal contracts.

When asked how much money had been overpaid, Sen. Burch said: "My assessment so far is that it is substantial, but because many of the contracts were verbal, it is very difficult to try to ascertain what should have been and what it was."

Mr. Dunkley said: "Before this Government took over, there was a complex bidding and tendering process in place. The bids were opened up by a couple of officers and projects were awarded on price, reliability and ability to do the job.

"After what the Minister said about verbal contracts, you have to ask, `Who gave permission for the established process to change?' Was it the general manager or the board and was the Minister asleep at the wheel?"

Mr. Dunkley said Sen. Burch's assertion that 60 per cent of the BHC's problems were long-standing and the rest more recent, required further explanation.

"As a member of the United Bermuda Party, I'm not saying things could not have been run better when we were in charge," said Mr. Dunkley. "We were not perfect.

"But the Minister is using smoke and mirrors here. We are well aware of who is to blame for this huge business of `Bermuda's Enron'.

"In November, 1998, when the PLP took over, the Housing Corporation's general manager was Ed Cowen and Tudor Smith was a property officer. These were replaced by people brought in by the PLP.

"If you go back to November, 1998, we were being caned by the PLP for what they said was our lack of initiative in dealing with the lack of affordable housing.

"Four years on and the situation is worse - we've gone backwards. By the Minister's own admission, there are now 173 people on the emergency housing list and another 400-plus who are looking for housing but cannot find it.

"This Government's handling of housing has been an abject, abysmal failure, a fiasco from day one.

"It's fine for the Minister to come in with a no-nonsense approach, but his timetable for sorting this out has got to be short. They have already wasted 80 per cent of a five-year term in which the Government seem to have been taking care of themselves rather than the people in need of help."

Mr. Dunkley suggested that the disused former Club Med accommodation in St. George's could be converted quickly into housing.

And he asked why the 12 new units built by the corporation off South Shore Road in Warwick were still empty.

"The public is paying thousands of dollars a week on security for those places so they don't get vandalised, while the Government decides who they want to put into them," said Mr. Dunkley.

The BHC scandal broke in March following revelations by this newspaper of huge payments to contractors, including $810,940 paid to painter Paul Young in a seven-month period last year.

Since then, Auditor General Larry Dennis has carried out a full investigation into the BHC. Mr. Dennis' findings sparked a police probe which continues. This week Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith promised the results of the investigation would not be "swept under the carpet".

Raymonde Dill was sacked as general manager in August by the BHC board and one of the property officers, Terrence Smith, was also dismissed. Finance manager Robert Clifford remains suspended.