How a deal was struck to award a three-year $10m tourism contract to US-based GlobalHue has been questioned by a UBP Senator during a heated Upper House debate.

The agency has been signed up to produce TV and radio adverts to promote Bermuda to East Coast Americans. It revealed part of its planned marketing drive at a tourism presentation held in the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel at the end of January.

But the way the company was selected for the multi-million advertising contract brought it to the centre of a Senate debate yesterday.

Senator Kim Swan sparked a row by suggesting the deal was struck in a questionable manner and showed a lack of consultation between the Department of Tourism and tourism stakeholders.

?We had the hiring of the new agency GlobalHue. When the Minister had the principal hired as a consultant, was there consultation? No. There was a back door mechanism done at the last minute to offer up a contender,? he said.

There was an immediate backlash from PLP Senators.

Sen. Swan replied: ?Well tell me that is not true.?

Outside of the chamber he added: ?At the last minute a tender went out and then GlobalHue was announced. Maybe one or two other persons expressed an interest. I just said that it did not appear to be a shared vision with any of the stakeholders or the VIP industry.?

Junior Tourism and Transport Minister Sen. Walter Roban (PLP) called on Sen. Swan to apologise: ?The comments were outright inflammatory and plain wrong.

?That agency was retained with a process that included many of our stakeholders. Our tourism partners were invited to be part of the process of choosing the agency. (Sen. Swan) suggested there was no consultation, that is wrong. He should retract the statement.?

Sen. Kim Swan set the debate in motion by criticising Government for what he claims was a lack of partnership and consultation with tourism partners on a range of issues, citing the appointment of Expedia as the main booking engine on the Department of Tourism?s website and the deal to bring $49 TNT Vacations flights from North America.

He mentioned the sudden decision to end talks with the Quorum group in favour of a new developer for the former Club Med hotel site at St. George?s as a further example of no consultation being made with other tourism partners.

Sen. Roban said: ?I feel duty-bound to clarify something after a member on the other side imputed certain questionable practices in relation to the tendering. In relation to retaining GlobalHue that process was handled in the manner that has been clearly outlined by Government. There were tenders given to six agencies, four of which were reviewed and processed and given to the review committee made up not only of Government but also the private sector.

?The member imputed there was not any transparency in the process, well Government and private sector parties were onboard.?

He said those involved included the Bermuda Hotel Association, the Tourism Board, the Ministry of Finance, the Department of Tourism?s marketing and the Accountant General.

?So, the member reputed some underhand backdoor dealings ? incorrect, erroneous and out of order,? he added.

But Sen. Swan claimed there was a long litany of examples of lack of consultation by the PLP Government dating back to 1998 and he accused it of micro-managing and said the errors could not be blamed on civil servants.

?When it comes to a shared vision and partnership, when it comes to tourism, this Government has been guilty of breaching that covenant,? he said.

Sen. Bob Richards said he had gone on GlobalHue?s website and discovered: ?They have a client list of automobile companies and that sort of thing. There is no mention of having any experience in resort tourism and yet they beat all these other firms who had experience.

?You can talk all you like about the process, but the process comes out with a cockamaine type of outcome then you have to question the process.?

Before the Senate adjourned for the Easter recess, Sen. David Burch (PLP) said his party expected to be insulted by the Opposition but he took issue with criticism being directed at civil servants.

Sen. Gina Spence-Farmer (UBP) replied that was misleading as the Opposition equally valued civil servants.

And Sen. Richards added: ?We have been critical of the Government yes, and the civil servants work with the Government. In my view civil servants are not sacred cows.

?When we become Government they are going to have work with us. And just like some of those civil servants who worked with the UBP Governments for 30 years had problems working with you guys (PLP) they may have problems working for us. Who cares? The fact is the civil service have to do a job.

?If civil servants are involved in something that is wrong or questionable they are not beyond questioning.?

Sen. Raymond Tannock (PLP) said: ?We too don?t believe civil servants are sacred cows. But they can?t defend themselves in this Chamber. If there is a problem there is a way to deal with this.?