Former Tourism Minister Renee Webb defended herself Friday over accusations she had earned a $200,000 commission from Government trades by saying a UBP Senator had also done so.

And she said her dealings were above board as they were listed in the register of interests.

Earlier this month, The Mid Ocean News revealed Ms Webb had earned the commission through Maximum Financial Ltd, an investment company of which she is a shareholder.

In the House of Assembly, Ms Webb said she was part owner of the company and said that when the PLP had taken power it had learned there were $1.5 billion of Government investments overseas, including pension funds.

?Government in its wisdom looked at how companies in Bermuda could benefit.?

A policy was set up where 30 percent of all brokered trades had to go through Bermuda companies.

She said there were about eight Bermuda company?s which benefited from the policy including Bob Richards? company Bermuda Asset Management as well as Lines Overseas Management and the banks.

She said: ?This has been going on for five years, this is nothing new. What is the story ? maybe implying I made $200,000 and no one else was making anything.?

Ms Webb said about 15 investment managers had benefited. She said she prided herself on being up front and honest and had disclosed her interest to Cabinet and whenever investment legislation was discussed in the House.

?They are talking about me and my one little company,? she added.

She said Government spend $711 million in the local economy which benefited local companies including those in which Opposition leader Grant Gibbons was involved.

Ms Webb listed a string of companies Dr. Gibbons had an interest in and said Government bought prison uniforms from one of his companies.

Smith?s Parish MP Trevor Moniz?s law firm had an exclusive deal to handle Bermuda Housing Corporation conveyancing when the former Government was in power she said and the company had some of this work even now.

Dunkley?s Dairies, owned by the Opposition?s Michael Dunkley, had a Government contract to provide milk, continued Ms Webb, who said black owned companies probably had less than two percent of Government contracts.

And she said Dr. Gibbons had been shown to have benefited from a trust which took a seven percent slice of the proceeds from awarding a licence to TBI under the previous government.

Dr. Gibbons interjected: ?I had no ownership, I didn?t receive seven percent!?

It was unreasonable to expect members of the House not to benefit from any Government spending said Ms Webb who said higher standards could be enforced if full time ministers were brought in.

She suggested the United Bermuda Party had only brought in the Register of Interests, which details MP?s financial interests, in its last year of Government when it knew it was about to be ousted. Opposition Home Affairs spokeswoman Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said it was understandable in a small community that MPs might have a financial interest in services which Government bought.

But she said Government had not done a good job in making sure taxpayers got value for money.

Citing the Berkeley contract she noted it had not gone to the lowest bidder in the first place and since then the price had increased by $50 million ? going from $72 million in the 2001-02 budget to $120 million now.

She said: ?It would have bought an awful lot of housing. We would not have anywhere near the housing crisis we have now if it had been spent in the right place for the right reasons.?