An attempt to prevent Government suffering a Senate defeat of its resolution to award large pay rises to Ministers and leading politicians has been branded ?an end run at the eleventh hour to avoid further scrutiny?.

Whether the move is successful will not be known for another two weeks as Senate President Alf Oughton studies a lengthy letter delivered to him on the eve of a planned debate and vote which should have taken place yesterday.

The intervention of fellow Senator Attorney General Larry Mussenden was enough to postpone what was shaping up to be a fiery debate on the controversial proposed pay rises.

There had been speculation Senators would reject the resolution that would have seen Premier Alex Scott?s pay increase 80 percent to $200,000, with full-time and part-time Ministers receiving $150,000 and $100,000 respectively.

Now the Senate may be reduced to holding a debate but stripped of any power to reject the resolution and send it winging back to the House of Assembly from where it was approved earlier this month.

United Bermuda Party MP John Barritt said: ?It is an attempt to run the Senate, that?s how it strikes me. You have a 1975 Act that says salaries are to be approved by both the Upper and Lower Houses.

?That has been the law, precedent and practice for 30 years. Why is this being raised now? It?s clearly because the Government doesn?t want the Senate to turn it back.?

And he called on the Attorney General to share the legal opinion with the people of Bermuda.

He said: ?It?s interesting Government brings the resolution to the Senate for debate and then suddenly pulls out this legal opinion that Senate can?t proceed with a vote. The people of Bermuda will see it for what it is, an end run at the eleventh hour to avoid further scrutiny in a vote.?

The Senate had been due to debate the pay rises last week, but the matter was held over for a week to allow Attorney General Sen. Mussenden to ?have a look at things,? said Sen. Oughton.

Controversy over the proposed pay rises has been growing with warnings in recent days from both the Bermuda Employers Council and the Bermuda Public Services Union.

On Tuesday Sen. Oughton received a letter from Sen. Mussenden which led to him announcing yesterday that the matter was being held over until July 12 while he looks into the substance of the letter.

Speaking of the letter he told : ?They are looking at Section 36 of the Constitution, which says any money bills coming down that implode on the Consolidated Fund means we don?t have the right to vote on them.

?The odd thing is the actual Act came into law in 1975 and no-one has ever challenged it before, but by the same token the Constitution overrides legislative acts.

?I have to look at that and a few other things in the report and, certainly because of one item in the report, I don?t want to release the letter publicly until I?ve had a chance to answer it in the Senate.?

He said he would be ?testing all avenues? in the coming two weeks to judge the true position of the Senate in regards to debating and voting on the pay rise resolution. The matter will not be discussed next week as Sen. Mussenden will be absent. Sen. Oughton said he would make his ruling on July 12.

MP Mr. Barritt said: ?It looks like the Attorney General is seeking to have the salaries approved without a vote in Senate. I think the President is right to defer and take legal advice to see what his position ought to be and he?s got to get independent legal advice.

?I?d say the Senate does have to deal with it, based on practice and precedent, because it has been sent down from the House of Assembly.?

Attorney General Sen. Mussenden said he did not comment on matters of legal advice.