Government is wrong to blame the Progressive Labour Party or the Senate for the failure of the Telecommunications Amendment Act 1996, Opposition Leader Frederick Wade said yesterday.

And if the United Bermuda Party was serious about telecommunications reform or the millions of dollars potential carriers could lose as a result of the delay, Government would have recalled the House of Assembly and dealt with the matter already.

Mr. Wade's comments came after Senate President Albert Jackson ruled that the Upper House could not reintroduce debate on the Telecommunications Amendment Act, effectively killing it until November when Parliament re-opens.

In spite of this, Government plans to offer licences to businesses interested in supplying telecommunications services.

But Mr. Wade, who holds the Shadow portfolio for Information and Technology issues in the PLP, said Government was "way off base to criticise his party''.

"They have demonstrated their ignorance of the rules of Parliament and their ignorance of how to get themselves out of a dilemma that they put themselves in,'' he said. "It's their own fault.'' Mr. Wade said the matter could be resolved quite simply if Government recalled the House of Assembly immediately.

Instead he said Government has chosen the tactic of "blaming the Opposition and Senators for simply doing their job''.

But Mr. Barritt has said that the idea of recalling the House was considered but it conflicted with MPs plans because many of them had already scheduled trips overseas during the summer recess.

"It was considered,'' Mr. Barritt said, "But at the end of the day it was felt that was not an option that was open to us. The chief reason was that members have chosen their summer holidays and we just would not have the troops.'' But Mr. Wade said if the Premier recalled the House of Assembly today, the only item on the agenda would be the Telecommunications Amendment Act.

"It would be dealt with in ten minutes. We all agree it should be done so there is no hardship, difficulty or encumbrance for Government to recall the House.

"They could pass the amendments and then Mr. Barritt can go ahead and do legally what he wants to do. He cannot lament the fact that the Senate has done its job by looking at legislation and making changes.

"The proper move is not to criticise Senators, or the PLP. He should use the House procedures to carry the bill to the next stage.'' This, Mr. Wade said, would solve the potential carriers the expenses they might otherwise incur with the delay in the legislation.

Mr. Wade also criticised the Technology Minister for implying that the PLP had "succumbed to lobbying by some of those concerned, without giving sufficient thought to the ramifications to Bermuda of what they did''.

He said Government gets advice all the time from persons who have an interest in the legislation that is about to be debated.

"We did the same thing,'' he added. "We have done this in the past and we will do it again. We visited the Telephone Company for an entire morning and saw their changes and what they intend to do.

"We also visited Cable and Wireless and they talked to us about what they wanted. We also had input from other would-be carriers.

"We have consulted broadly on this matter. To condemn us for that and to claim that we read the Telco brief is nonsense. All we had was a broad consultation and we agreed with some issues.'' At a Press conference on Wednesday, Mr. Barritt repeated the allegation that the PLP had succumbed to lobbying from interested parties.

He said: "As I understand it, a brief that had been prepared for the Bermuda Telephone Company was in fact shared with the Opposition Senators and that's what they read from down in the Senate.

"But that is entirely the prerogative both of the Telephone Company and of Opposition Senators to receive it and debate on the basis of that.''