An offer by the Ministry of Works and Engineering to help straighten out some of the chaos caused by its sudden relocating of the Auditor General's office at the weekend has been turned down until Auditor General Larry Dennis returns to the Island next week.

In the meantime one of the most important branches of Bermuda's Government remains temporarily unable to carry out its function as financial watchdog and auditor of the public purse.

The Minister at the centre of the affair Senator Lt. Col. David Burch said his department, which carried out the removal and relocation of the office furniture over the weekend after announcing its intentions at 4 p.m. on Friday, yesterday offered its resources to get the crippled Office of the Auditor General back up and running.

But the offer was rejected by Acting Auditor General Barry Neilson.

Sen. Burch said: "We have been rebuked. They said they don't want our help with anything yet and they are not going to allow us to do so. We have offered. We want them to be up and running and we want to assist. Their answer is that they are not agreeing to anything until the Auditor General returns."

He in turn rejected the suggestion that there had been an orchestrated attack on the Office of the Auditor General.

Earlier this month the office published a critical report of Government regarding $800 million of public money that could not be readily checked.

Minister Burch said: "I deny that we have any kind of campaign against him (Auditor General)."

But Auditor General Mr. Dennis, who is currently in Canada, responded: "The Government has a tendency of saying what they are not doing when that is actually what they are doing."

The need to move the Office of Auditor General has been on the cards since late last year when the private landlord of Victoria Hall, in Victoria Street, said the lease of the fourth floor offices would not be renewed this May.

An office space on the third floor was offered as an alternative and a rental and lease agreement was signed in February. But a lack of action to fit out the vacant office, and the absence of any agreed design plan for the new office, is at the centre of the current difficulties.

With less than 24 hours prior notice office furniture was taken from the fourth floor by a W&E removal team at the weekend and stacked up in the sparse third floor office. There are no adequate telephone and computer hook-ups in the new office and the main computer server will need to be reinstalled by specialists. This week some AG office staff have been scattered around other Government offices wherever space can be found for them to use a desk and using computer memory cards to transfer data, a timely and inefficient process as the Office of the Auditor General was gearing up for a major audit of the Government's Consolidate Fund on June 1.

A temporary computer set up at an alternative location has been arranged for a few other members of the audit team to continue working as best they can. For the remaining AG staff who cannot be found work space it appears to be a case of taking the week off. Mr. Dennis has said staff who cannot be readily accommodated should stay away until a solution to the current difficulties is found.

He laid the blame for the haphazard office move at the door of the Ministry of W&E, which is responsible for housing all Government departments and related parties.

Mr. Dennis feels his office has been temporarily crippled in a political attempt to "bring the Auditor General to heel".

He said what should have happened between February and May was for the Ministry of W&E to design an office plan to be agreed with him and then for the office space to be configured and fitted out before the move. Even once a plan had been agreed he estimates it would take around eight weeks to carry out preparations for a move.

Mr. Dennis claims an office plan was not presented by W&E until May 5. It was deemed inadequate, omitting for instance 16 filing cabinets, and remained unagreed between the two departments. Part of the problem is the smaller office dimensions, some 1,500 sq ft less than the former premises. This is part of a new W&E rationale introduced in April for Government offices based on staff numbers. It is designed to reduce Government costs. Minister Sen. Burch said: "The AG feels he has been badly done by. His office happens to be one of the first leases to come up for renewal that's why he is first up to bat. He's going to have a whole lot of company from a lot of other people in Government because the same process is going to apply to them.

"He has known since September and he has just decided that he was not going.

"We have an ongoing relationship with the landlord of Victoria Hall and the landlord said he was not prepared to extend the lease on that space. He has other clients that he wants to move in. The AG is well aware of that. We have a responsibility having passed the lease deadline by two days to act otherwise he would be out on the street because the landlord could say 'you're not having none of the space in my building because you don't act properly'.

"As of the May 23 he was illegally occupying that space and the landlord had every right to demand of us that he have his space back. And since there was no effort on the AG's part to do something on Friday we said 'listen we have got to do something, if we want to maintain our good relationship with the owners of Victoria Hall'."

But why hadn't an office plan been presented for consultation before May 5, leaving so little time to iron out problems or for the eight weeks of leeway needed to get things organised for a move?

Sen. Burch said: "The argument there is that there wasn't a plan that he (the AG) wanted.

"There is a process, there is a policy that we have got to reduce the cost of rental space in Hamilton. Would I have chosen for it not to have been him first? It has led to a suggestion that we are picking on him, but that is not enough of a reason not to do the right thing. I would maintain the AG knew three years ago that his lease was going to expire. The Victoria Hall owner indicated in September he was not renewing the lease. The AG is really saying that he has (an office) plan and that is the only one that he is going to do. His plan is far outside of the requirements of Government for the housing of all of Government departments."

Acting Auditor General Barry Neilson said yesterday some progress was being made in terms of arranging telephone line transfers and organising computer link ups.

Asked why yesterday's offer of assistance from the Ministry of W&E had been declined, he said: "The downstairs office needs to be refitted at some point and we have to have a plan agreed and that is something that I would want Mr. Dennis to agree so I declined to discuss the offer."

The circumstances that have brought the Office of the Auditor General to a virtual standstill have been criticised by the Opposition United Bermuda Party, with UBP Deputy Leader Michael Dunkley calling on Premier Alex Scott to explain why it had happened and how it was going to be resolved.