Union chief Ed Ball yesterday questioned whether Premier Ewart Brown has "hard and fast evidence" to support his claim that civil servants may be to blame for a smear campaign involving falsified cheques.

Dr. Brown and Works and Engineering Minister Derrick Burgess revealed on Thursday that they were the victims of an alleged scam designed to make it look as though they had personally profited from two cheques paid out by the contractors building the new Police/court building in Hamilton.

The Premier made no reference at a morning press conference to who might be to blame for fraudulently altering the cheques from Landmark Lisgar Construction, now LLC Bermuda, which were found in files at the Ministry of Works and Engineering.

But a statement sent out to local and international media by a Government public affairs officer that afternoon attributed these remarks to him: "We cannot prejudge.

"But I have to say that it is at least possible that these fabrications emanate from within the Ministry itself and that one or more civil servants may be found to bear some complicity in their manufacture."

Mr. Ball, general secretary of Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU) for civil servants, told The Royal Gazette he was surprised by the comments.

"It's an accusation that goes to the root of one's integrity and reputation," he said. "If anyone is going to accuse anyone of anything, there has to be hard and fast evidence."

Police are investigating the fabricated cheques — one made out to Dr. Brown for almost $15,000 and another to Mr. Burgess for $10,000 — as a matter of urgency, according to Government House.

Mr. Ball said: "I'll be very surprised that any civil servant would do something that would be so blatant that they could be caught out."

He added: "The BPSU does not want to know that any civil servant is deliberately interfering with the effective running of government."

The union boss said conclusions about who was to blame should not be drawn before inquiries revealed the facts.

"Certainly, everyone is innocent until proven guilty," he said. "There will certainly have to be some rationale, some definitive evidence that points to any civil servant that has done anything wrong. I'm not going to prejudge.

"I'm hoping the investigation will get to the heart of the matter so that the whole of Bermuda can be put at ease. Natural justice must be seen to be done for all parties."

He said the comments would "impugn on anybody's reputation" and could affect morale across the civil service. "It's worrying, not only to that department but to all civil servants, that one of their colleagues would be impugned."

Opposition Leader Kim Swan said: "That the Government sent out press statements to the international press containing suggestions that public servants may have been involved in cheque forgeries strikes us as unnecessary, irresponsible and alarmist.

"It was a course of action that simply did not serve the interest of Bermuda."

A press release from the Premier's press secretary said the two cheques were actually paid to Scorpio Construction Limited and Chester Management, but the "pay to" line was tampered with in a bid to "frame" Dr. Brown and Mr. Burgess.

They were discovered by Works and Engineering permanent secretary Robert Horton as part of an internal investigation prompted by questions from Auditor General Larry Dennis, who is carrying out an audit of the $78 million Police/court building project to ensure the proper accountability of public funds.