Government has failed to explain why Parliamentary Questions on the bidding process to overhaul the Corporations of Hamilton and St. George have gone unanswered.

And Opposition MP John Barritt believes Government is using a House of Assembly rule that allow questions to go unanswered if they are deemed to be of a "secret nature" as justification.

On February 10, Mr. Barritt submitted three questions to the Clerk of the Legislature asking for information on the request for proposal (RFP) process for the oversight, management and implementation of the integration of the municipalities into the Government of Bermuda.

Government previously awarded the $800,000 contract to local law firm Attride-Stirling & Woloniecki and the US law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge.

Written answers were supposed to be delivered by February 19 but to date none have been produced and neither the Cabinet Office nor Speaker Stanley Lowe have explained why, according to Mr. Barritt.

"I have not even had the courtesy of an on the record reply," Mr. Barritt said. "It's only through digging around that I have been able to find out that they are refusing to answer the questions because they think the information should be regarded as secret."

The questions asked Government to provide the House of Assembly with the details of each of the proposals received in response to the RFP, including the projected and/or estimated cost of each proposal.

He also asked the Government to provide details of the accepted proposal of the successful bidders including the services they propose to provide, the total number of estimated hours to complete the RFP project and the applicable hourly rate.

Cabinet Secretary Marc Telemaque twice stated Cabinet would not be responding and added: "The Clerk to the Legislature, on behalf of the Speaker should be invited to address this as the determination of this matter is one for the Speaker."

However the Clerk has failed to reply to two requests for comment on whether or not the questions would be answered and, if not, what provision from the House of Assembly rules the Government was basing its refusal on. The Speaker read an e-mail from The Royal Gazette asking the same questions on Friday, but failed to respond.

Mr. Barritt said he believes they have deemed the information a secret.

"What I find incredible, preposterous even, is the claim that the information which I am seeking is regarded as secret," he added. "This is the public purse we are talking about and a projected cost of $800,000 for this review is an extraordinary sum of money to spend even in the best of times and, as most people in Bermuda understand only too well, these are not the best of times.

"Government loves to criticise and call the Opposition on calling for cuts. They want to know where. This is one obvious choice, we think. But given that Government wants to plough ahead anyhow, we think they should be called upon to justify the expenditure and these questions and the answers are going to help us and the public make a determination. What is it, I ask, that they are trying to hide?"

• The United Bermuda Party has asked 99 parliamentary questions (33 sets of three) in the House of Assembly since the start of the current parliamentary session in November, not 75, as we reported on March 11.