Furbert could have been avoided if a register of MPs' interests was in place.

Government backbencher Trevor Moniz made the claim as fall-out continued over news that permission was granted to Mr. Furbert's wife to run a specialty coffee machine at the Airport. Mr. Furbert has now pulled the concession.

Yesterday local businessman Nick Jones called for Mr. Furbert to resign.

Mr. Jones and his brother Adrian lost out on a bid to run a coffee shop at the Airport. And subsequently they decided not to follow through with the idea.

However, Mr. Nick Jones said events that led to Mrs. Ulene Furbert getting permission to operate a vending machine should be made public.

"No matter what, Mr. Furbert has got to go for doing this,'' he said. "That is inside trading. It's disgusting.

"All the rest of us had to go through a process. If there needs to be a temporary arrangement it should be done by Government and Government should be making the profit. Not an individual.

"If he was that caring a Minister he could place five Government-owned vending machines down there and let Government make the profit and the whole Island can benefit from it.'' Meanwhile, Mr. Moniz said the events involving Mr. Furbert and his wife underscored the need for a Register of Interests although it would be some time before the committee could sit down for business.

Mr. Moniz said that there were some procedural difficulties that had beset the Standing Joint Parliamentary Committee looking into a register.

That committee is composed of himself, deputy Premier Jerome Dill, Sport Minister David Dyer, PLP MPs David Allen and Paula Cox as well as Senators Alf Oughton and Milton Scott.

"Sport Minister Dyer will be leaving politics at the end of the month and senators Oughton and Scott have not been officially named because the Upper House did not get to do it before they went down for the summer.

"Officially the committee is not constituted,'' Mr. Moniz explained.

"Unofficially we know who is going to be on it and it has been a little complicated even getting an informal meeting together.'' Despite these setbacks, Mr. Moniz said that the controversy that had erupted over the perceived preference given to Mr. Furbert's wife amplified the need to get on with the committee's work.

"That is the sort of thing that we have to watch out for,'' he continued.

"When issues of conflict of interest arise it raises public concern.'' More importantly, he said, he did not understand why the restaurant concession had not been put back out to tender since the Prohibited Restaurant Act only banned all restaurants with a foreign flavour.

Governor Thorold Masefield recently signed into law the Act, which blocked a bid by former Premier Sir John Swan and UBP MP Maxwell Burgess to bring McDonald's hamburgers to Bermuda. Their company, Grape Bay Ltd, has since been named as plaintiff in a challenge to the law.

If the Register of Interests is successful, MPs could soon have to declare jobs, gifts and directorships.

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