Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons yesterday called the National Drug Commission (NDC) Repeal Act the termination of the NDC.

It was Government's way of cutting its losses, he told the House of Assembly.

Pulling quotes from the quango report commissioned by Government, Dr. Gibbons said the relevancy of the NDC had been questioned.

He said there had been a lot of issues of trust in relation to partnership relationships with the Council Partners Charitable Trust. Dr. Gibbons said the NDC had been allocated $13 million between 1998 and 2002 and according to the quango report "while progress has been made, there is more to be done".

He said there was also the issue of a high key staff turnover as the NDC lost two CEOs ? one treatment co-ordinator and one research officer since 1999.

"According to the quango report there is ambiguity surrounding NDC's relation with other drug affiliated organisations. I think it's a very nice way of saying that they have been on life support and in a shambles over the last few years," he said.

Dr. Gibbons said while it was "convenient" for Government and the Minister of Health and Family Services, Patrice Minors to talk about the NDC as if it were somebody that was "sitting out there", the NDC was a Government quango and Government had responsibility for it.

He said under the Act the Minister had the ability to provide direction to the NDC.

"And it in turn has the responsibility and in an accountable way, it should have done something to not only shore up the NDC, but to make sure the money that was spent... and in the words of the quango commission 'quite frankly wasted' over the last two years, and that something was done about that," he said. He told the House the saddest thing was that another quango had come to grief under the PLP's watch.

"Rather than fix it, which was Government's responsibility, what they have chosen to do is simply to bury it in the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

"A ministry which in its own right is undergoing some major issues as to how it should organise itself in terms of things like Bermuda Health Care Council and others where we have still got a lot of progress to make before we see the light of day on some of the basic issues that are facing this community," he said.

Dr. Gibbons went on to say that Government has spelled out no clear plan to deal with drugs.

"Yes, we did hear some comments about some of the issues that need to be dealt with and we all understand very clearly that drugs and drug abuse is one of the major issues facing this country right now," he said.

He told the House there was no one in Bermuda who was not affected by drugs in a major way and for the Government not to have a plan was "shocking".

Dr. Gibbons said the "holistic approach" the Ministry spoke of meant they had no plan and no performance and the community would suffer as a consequence of lack of planning and accountability. "It means the money gets spent and nothing gets accomplished," he said.

Dr. Gibbons was concerned Ms Minors would suggest that the "independent voice" of the NDC would be dealt with by setting up a non-statutory advisory board. "It wasn't clear the Government was not listening to the NDC in the first place and to simply say that a non-statutory advisory board would be set up to deal with the independence issue is inadequate," he said.