THE mix of public money and private contractors is often fraught with difficulty. While taxpayers may foot the bill, the company understandably insists on some commercial privacy. The result is that legitimate questions about how ‘our money’ is being spent are seemingly brushed aside.

Off-island contracts suffer especially from such a closed approach, partly because the company has no desire to involve itself with local politics and partly because, by nature, these are large companies with their own internal bureaucracy.

The contract with Lagan Construction Ltd to refurbish the airport pavements has not even been signed and local businesses are expressing frustration at being shut out.

The States project board sought to ‘encourage’ the use of local sub-contractors at the tender stage but it could do no more than that and much of the £80m. will go off-island. That is regrettable but, given the economies of scale, inevitable.

What is less easy to understand is the insistence that off-island workers needed for the project are to be housed in pre-fab units at Longue Hougue.

As we reported on Saturday, there are alternatives available in what remains of the tourism industry, with current and former hotels keen for a long-term commitment to fill their rooms.

It makes little sense to spend unknown thousands erecting a huge one-off structure when sufficient rooms are vacant for a good price.

The Billet says it is because the company wants to ‘minimise the impact on the island’s limited housing stock’. Do boarding houses really count?

Logistically, it makes no sense to house the workers in one of the least hospitable parts of the east coast when the majority of their work will be done several miles away.

The extra traffic will be bad enough with between 35 and 60 large lorries trundling around the island without scores of workers being ferried back and forth as well.

And who will ultimately pay for the construction of the pre-fab village? Presumably, it is part of the contract price.

Regrettably, if there are good answers to these questions none has yet been forthcoming as the States passes the buck to Lagan – which files it all in a large folder marked ‘no comment’.