Suggestions that City Hall staff are guilty of maladministration have been dismissed by the civil servants’ union as “whispers in the wind”.In a response to comments by Deputy Mayor Donal Smith that the Ombudsman should investigate the day-to day administration and management of the Corporation, Bermuda Public Services Union Secretary General Ed Ball told this newspaper that Mr Smith has no evidence of any wrongdoing by Corporation of Hamilton staff.“If the Deputy Mayor Mr Donal Smith has conclusive evidence of maladministration and wrongdoing by any Corporation of Hamilton staff (our members) — be they support, administrators, and senior managers, then these wrongs would have been identified by the Corporation’s auditors over the last two years,” he said.“The union would have expected for those alleged wrongs (if identified in writing) to have been addressed by the Corporation of Hamilton as part of their good governance policy and procedures.“The Auditor’s duty under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles is to identify in writing any manner of maladministration which must be reflected in the annual audit for that organisation’s financial year.“If there have been no such audited remarks from any auditors of the Hamilton Corporation’s books over a two-year period, I am sure the Ombudsman Ms Arlene Brock will note same and will also use her good office and other resources to conduct a thorough investigation for any wrong doing or maladministration at the Corporation of Hamilton.“Until such time the Ombudsman’s has completed a thorough investigation and released her report, any accusations of maladministration against any Corporation staff is just ‘whispers in the wind’.”The remarks come in the wake of the Ombudsman’s announcement that she was a launching a systematic investigation into City Hall.Ms Brock, said she was launching an own motion investigation in the public interest and look at the governance of the Corporation in the light of concerns about lack of transparency and public consultation, especially with respect to the waterfront redevelopment project.“Shedding light on governance at the Corporation can only be of benefit to the City of Hamilton and to Bermuda as a whole,” she said.City Hall initially issued a short statement saying it would cooperate fully with the investigation, but a day later issued another statement insisting that the Ombudsman could be acting outside her remit, that she should investigate past administrations and look into the “day-to-day administration and management of the Corporation of Hamilton”.Questions surfaced over City Hall’s handling of the waterfront redevelopment project when it announced a selected developer in January this year against the wishes of Government which said it had yet to conduct due diligence on the project’s financiers and had not been fully briefed.And this month it emerged that City Hall had leased waterfront property to developers.Besides the controversy over the waterfront, City Hall has also been facing a grievance procedure from its senior staff who have accused Mayor Graeme Outerbridge and his Council of unfair labour practices and interfering with the staff’s trade union rights.