The $2.2 million cost of the Premier's personal office was yesterday blasted by Opposition leader Pamela Gordon .

And the cost of travel last year -- a massive $602,000 compared to the original estimate of $313,000 -- as well as entertainment came under fire.

Ms Gordon said: "When you're paying for the National Stadium and people don't have houses.. .there is a requirement for the leader of the country to set an example and we're not seeing that.'' But Premier Jennifer Smith hit back that no Cabinet approval could be found for the $5000-a-month used to pay for an official residence for Ms Gordon when she was Premier.

But Ms Gordon denied figures showing that work on the house amounted to $174,000.

Ms Gordon said: "There is no way that kind of money can be justified for what was put there.'' But she added: "I have no doubt the Ministry has documentation to support this ridiculous amount.'' And she insisted that Cabinet had approved her housing allowance -- and that she had copies of Cabinet papers proving that.

The clash came as the House of Assembly debated non-Ministry Budget allocations, which includes the Cabinet Office.

And Ms Gordon said that $40,000 for a housekeeper from the Premier's home -- which is in addition to the official residence of Camden -- was unnecessary expenditure as well.

She added that the $5000-a-month given to her for housing as Premier covered rent, gardening, land tax and insurance and housekeeping services.

And Ms Gordon said there was nothing in the allocation for the current Premier's home covering things like gardening -- and she added that land tax and insurance might be rolled into other Ministerial budgets.

She added: "We don't see any provision for furniture to furnish the place -- if we're going to talk about accountability, transparency and all the rest of it, we must compare like with like.'' And Ms Gordon said the furniture in her residence was "paid for by myself'' while air-conditioning installed was three-quarters financed by her.

She added that the Premier's residence had an additional $48,000 allocated for entertainment, on top of the $260,000 estimated for Cabinet Office this year.

Ms Gordon said: "That is a high amount of money -- we certainly hope it's only for Camden -- and that's an excessive amount of money for entertaining when we're talking about the country cutting back.'' But Ms Smith insisted the rent for the former Premier's house was "artificially low'' because of the renovations which needed to be done and the $5000 a month did not reflect the real costs.

Ms Gordon added that "instruments of appoinment'' had not been brought to the House for the Premier's Chief of Staff and her aide, although Ms. Smith said the appointments had been discussed in the House.

But Ms Gordon said: "That is not an instrument of appointment and I would ask her to produce that, which has not been done in 15 months, not only for her staff, but for the assistant to the Opposition leader.

During the discussion on the Public Service Commission, Ms Smith said that there were currently 127 non-Bermudian civil servants, mostly professional or technical staff, but most of those had a Bermudian understudy who would replace them at the end of their contracts.

Ms Gordon -- who highlighted an estimated $12,000 (41 percent) increase in the cost of repairs and maintenance for the Governor and staff said perhaps it was time the Governor's Daimler limousine was replaced.

She said: "We all know the Daimler keeps breaking down -- maybe it's time for the acquisition of a new car. When you look at the age of the Daimler, we're throwing bad money after bad money. If we have a new vehicle, we wouldn't have this charge.'' Departments 2000/01 estimates Ministry responsibility: Each of the Departments has its own responsibility and does not fall under a Minister, with the exception of Cabinet Office, which falls under the Premier.

Budget estimate: $22,584,000 (last year $21,226,000) Revenue: $5,061,000 Budget allocations Governor and staff $1,043,000 Legislature $2,893,000 Judicial department $6,404,000 Attorney General's Chambers $3,079,000 Office of the Auditor $1,813,000 Public Service Commission $86,000 Cabinet Office $2,205,000 Too much: Opposition Leader Pam Gordon