Tourism and Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb is unabashed about her desire to see more Bermudians, especially black Bermudians, get more ownership of the Island's businesses.

There is nothing wrong with that. Innumerable surveys have shown that there is a salary disparity between blacks and whites, that a greater proportion of whites own and manage businesses than blacks, and that whites are more likely than blacks to own their own homes.

That should be unacceptable to any government, and a government that is predominantly black will inevitably wish to redress the balance.

So this is not a question of a desirable end, but of the most desirable means, and how the goal of seeing black Bermudians enjoy a greater share of the Island's prosperity can be achieved.

The trouble is that this Government does not have, regardless of Ms Webb's statements, a set policy. It has an ad hoc and arbitrary approach which certain Ministers follow and others say they don't.

In the House of Assembly on Friday, Ms Webb said her Government did not mind if the Berkeley project was late if it accomplished the goal of giving black-owned businesses a greater stake. And she added, correctly, that other Government capital projects overseen by white-owned contractors had been late. So why pick on Berkeley contractors Pro-Active?

Not so, said Works Minister Alex Scott. Pro-Active was given the contract on the basis of its merits and ability.

In the absence of a policy, that is as it should be. In fact, the concerns over Pro-Active were never about race, but about the company's experience and ability to do the job. It had never done a project of even comparable size before CedarBridge and it was natural that concerns about its management structure and so forth would be raised.

And it is true that projects like Westgate and the Airport were late and over-budget; this newspaper should know because it made the problems public, just as it is doing now with Berkeley.

Sadly, the concerns about Berkeley are now proving to be well-founded. Having maintained for months that the project was on-time and on-budget, Mr. Scott first admitted two months ago that it was two months late, and then revealed in yesterday's Royal Gazette that it may be six months before the project was totally finished.

How can anyone be happy with this? Whether this contract was awarded on merit or as some form of affirmative action, the project is now hopelessly delayed.

If this was an affirmative action project, it would be seen as one that rewarded delays.

If this was an affirmative action project, it would create a system where black-owned businesses were never asked to do work of excellence because they would not have to as long as they could be fed work by Government. Then, if the Government tap was turned off and they had to compete with other white and black-owned companies in the private sector they will fail because they have never been required to meet reasonable standards.

That's no way to encourage people to get ahead, not to mention a complete waste of taxpayers' money.

And what self-respecting business would want to be told: "You only get this job because you are black?"

But there are constructive ways for small businesses to succeed with the help of Government. Government organisations like the Small Business Development Corporation can guarantee loans and give good business advice.

Companies that put in place local training programmes - like Pro-Active, incidentally - could receive tax breaks.

Government can bring together law firms, accounting companies, service providers of all kinds to give help and advice to all sorts of small businesses.

Companies that encouraged diversity for race, gender and Bermudians, can be honoured and rewarded through organisations like CURE.

There are successful black-owned businesses in Bermuda. There are not enough. And permitting mediocrity and failure will ensure that there never will be.