The Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) came out with guns blazing Friday in response to what they said was a lack of consistency on Government's policy on the awarding of contracts and defended UBP policies when they were in power.

His party agreed that there was economic imbalance between the races, said UBP Leader Grant Gibbons. But Tourism and Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb and Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott were “180 degrees apart” on what the policy was and the Premier in her address had managed to support them both, adding: “The question - of course - is which is the approved policy of Government?”

Ms Smith's statement was unclear and amounted to “five pages of rhetoric” but had not answered the question. And, reading from the Premier's statement he said he did not understand what “sole selective tender” meant. “Does this refer to the painter with the golden paintbrush at the Bermuda Housing Corporation?”

And to the Premier's challenge that the public should compare contracts awarded under the PLP with those awarded under the UBP, Dr. Gibbons taunted the Government saying: “We would be delighted to compare the contracts but we simply haven't seen the contracts.”

Dr. Gibbons also dismissed the Premier's claims that Government had “imposed a level of accountability... that is meticulous to the point of being fastidious”, remarking on the investigation into the Bermuda Housing Corporation.

The PLP Government was one that “talked the talk but did not walk the walk,” he said. Dr. Gibbons scoffed at claims of Government transparency and accountability and reeled off a list of reports that have not been publicised.

“What about the Bermuda Housing Corporation report. What about all the other reports that have been discussed - the Civil Service review, the Bermuda Regiment review? The tax review, the review of asbestos at Southside. You can go on and on and on. Accountability and transparency? That certainly has not been the watchword of the Smith Government.”

Ms Smith had also touted “fiscal discipline and new standards of revenue management” as a philosophy of her Government.

But Dr. Gibbons said that revenue management had to do with spending and that Government had spent too much money on travel, flowers and “huge budgeted capital expenditures”.

“How can this Government talk about investor friendly when you look at what happened at Morgan's Point ? We had a perfectly good candidate up there... who essentially were driven out of here by the investor policies of this particular Government. Others since then have said they have hardly got anywhere. Hardly investor friendly. What happened to all the proposals for Club Med? What happened to the Hamilton Hotel?”

He said that the country wanted a Government that “doesn't play favourites and focus on a select few... They want a Government they can trust to be fair to every single Bermudian. And without a clear and consistent tendering policy the Smith Government or any other Government can award contracts on a whim”.

He reminded the House that the contract bidding process was opened up by a UBP Government. Dr. Gibbons said that the UBP had departed from prior practice by dividing large contracts among a number of small contractors.

“I think that is a good example of the way in which a former United Bermuda Party Government essentially were at pains to be as fair as possible and as open as possible, to spread out the wealth as far as they possibly could.”

And he denounced the Premier's claims that the UBP Governments had “excluded the vast majority of the population from participation in the mainstream of economic activity”.

Dr. Gibbons said: “Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact that economic parity does not exist does not mean that former Governments were systematically excluding people... That is a patent misstatement of the truth.”