The row over Tourism Minister David Allen's new media advisor Roy Boyke continued yesterday when the United Bermuda Party (UBP) dismissed claims that the Trinidadian's work has no connection to the impending election.

But Mr. Boyke said last night his purpose was to improve tourism in Bermuda not to advise the PLP.

And he described a suggestion by Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell that one of his purposes is to smooth troubled relations between the PLP back bench and Premier Jennifer Smith as "entirely the creation of fertile minds".

Mr. Boyke also stood by his claim that he was approached to do work by the former UBP Government - despite a denial by Mr. Dodwell.

And he accused the Shadow Tourism Minister - who spoke to him in May this year - of being "disingenuous" by denying the UBP tried to recruit him for the next election.

In The Royal Gazette yesterday, Mr. Boyke rejected UBP claims that although he was employed as a Tourism Department consultant, he would actually be helping the PLP.

Mr. Boyke, who worked as a media adviser to the PLP at the last election, said he would resign his Tourism contract if he was asked to work for the PLP because it would create a conflict of interest.

And he said the tax-payer would not foot the bill for any political work he might do in Bermuda.

But Mr. Dodwell said: "Despite what Roy Boyke said, I am not at all convinced that his presence here is as free of connection to the upcoming election as he says it is.

"My information is one of the things he is looking at is the poor relationship that exists between the back bench and the Premier and her front bench. Quite how you justify that as a job for Tourism is a mystery to me.

"Even if he is not overtly working for the PLP, I still think his work has a direct relation to the PLP's campaign to win the next election.

"My guess is that the advice Mr. "My guess is that the advice Mr. Boyke will be giving Tourism will have a great deal more to do with the broad public picture of Government relations with the media and the public than with the narrow business of Tourism's image and David Allen's image.

"To get around the semantics, the charge that we should be making is not that Mr. Boyke is using Tourism as a cover for giving election advice to the PLP, but that he is using Tourism as a cover for giving the Government advice that will benefit the PLP in the upcoming election."

He said the real problem was the PLP's "complete inability" to respond to media questions in a "timely and sensible manner", which hampered its attempts to get its message to the public.

Mr. Boyke said: "If in the process of the work I'm doing in tourism, Bermuda benefits, the Government would presumably look good and by extension that would be good for the PLP.

"The bottom line is that my purpose is to contribute to the betterment of Bermuda's tourism returns. Insofar as I'm being asked to to be an intermediary between the back bench and the Premier, that is entirely the creation of fertile minds.

"Since the last election, my return to Bermuda was earlier this year on Tourism business. My assignment continues to be Tourism. When I visit Bermuda it is on Tourism Ministry business not the PLP's."

Mr. Dodwell said Mr. Boyke was wrong to state he was "engaged in government matters for the former UBP Government".

He said: "The party interviewed him with a view to possibly hiring him as a consultant. As part of the interview process, he was asked questions that related to the way we were conducting ourselves in government, to see what his answers might be. In the end, we did not hire him, so he was not paid to do anything at all for either the government or the party."

Mr. Boyke responded: "I was contacted by a member of the UBP who initiated the conversation. I was sent material the government was working on, a very important project, which I treated and returned to them.

"I have documentary evidence of that. Subsequent to that, I was invited to visit Bermuda by a senior UBP Government member and nothing came out of it.

"There was no fee. They wanted me to name a fee and I said I had to understand the task and to look at their research. I was told it was confidential. They wouldn't share it and that was it. Being engaged in doesn't mean being hired by."

On Mr. Boyke saying the UBP asked him to work for it in May, Mr. Dodwell said: "I had heard a rumour that he was working for the PLP again, and I thought I would try to confirm it.

"I asked him: 'Are you available?' knowing that if he were working for the PLP he would not be. He confirmed that he was not available. I did not ask him to work for the UBP at all."

Mr. Boyke said last night: "He is again being disingenuous."

Tourism issued a statement yesterday outlining the role Mr. Boyke will play and said his contract is for one year.

It said Mr. Boyke was employed to: "Assist in the restructuring of Tourism's marketing function and implementation of its marketing communications and on-Island tourism awareness programmes. He is also expected to contribute to optimisation of the Department's media and supplier relationships, and in training and development of of Department personnel."

Tourism Director Judith Hall-Bean added: "Because of the constant flow of negative and sometimes less than objectivity in the local media in relation to Tourism, it was felt the Ministry's media relations needed to be enhanced." Mr. Boyke was appointed on March 1 this year, but Mrs Hall-Bean said it was "not the usual practice" to publicise the appointment of consultants.

She said it was "not the policy" of the Department to reveal consultancy fees, but she did not respond to questions about whether any Bermudians could have done the job or if the Department tried to hire a Bermudian for the post.

lThe Royal Gazette incorrectly stated yesterday that RF Communications was Mr. Boyke's company. Mr. Boyke was brought in to work for RF Communications, a Bermudian company, for the PLP at the last election.