Government has been accused of favouritism after it ordered its massive overseas travel budget to be given to one business.

The move has led to one agency to shut one of its shops while several other travel agents are crying foul in the face of losses worth tens of thousands of dollars a year.

The Government travel account is worth around $3 million a year, which meant that around $300,000 in commissions was spread around several agents who arranged flights and hotels for officials from separate departments.

Now, after a directive from the Cabinet Office, all Government departments are to arrange their travel through Travel Planners. There was no explanation for the move.

Henry Hayward, president of Meyer Travel, said the order smacked of favouritism.

He said Meyer's airport branch was closing next week, primarily due to the loss of Government business.

"If you are going to deal with one agency, each should have had a chance to submit a proposal. If they then gave it to one person, then fine, he said.

"I find it an extraordinary move in a democratic society. It was an important amount (of money), Government people travel all the time.'' Both Mr. Hayward and Michael Smith of the Donald Smith Travel Connection said the "contract'' had not been put out to tender in `the normal way'.

Mr. Smith said that they used to do a lot of Government business, until around three months ago when the work dried up.

He said: "At least we feel we should have had a chance to bid on it, it is very un-governmental. Now they have picked one agent and said "that is it'', without notifying anybody.'' "If we had lost the bid we would have understood, you can't win them all. But we never had the opportunity.'' "Everybody should have a piece of the action, we realise we weren't the only agents, that was fine with us but as long as we had a share we were happy.'' Government spends a sizable amount of money on travel for its Ministers and civil servants. In the 2000/2001 budget statement, the actual expenditure on travel in the 1999/2000 financial year was $3,103,000. The estimated total for the current year was $2,988,000.

Agents slam new Government travel directive When asked how Travel Planners got the `contract', human resources manager Ed Christopher said they solicited "like anybody else.

"We worked night and day on it,'' he said.

He refused to answer how the work was awarded to them, but said of the other travel agents: "If they were smart they would have done business like we did.'' He said Government was their client and he was not prepared to talk about their business.

Opposition Leader Pamela Gordon said Government was wrong to direct business to just one company, adding that taxes were paid by all members of the community.

She accused the Government of cronyism: "They (Government) are going to run the country for their supporters and everybody else be damned.'' Donald MacPherson, a partner in Advance Travel, said: "We are aware of it and are not happy. Nobody likes to lose business. It is very, very marginal as it is, contrary to what people think.'' For the travel agent, the business could mean a commission of ten percent on flights and up to 15 percent on hotels and car rentals.

Mr. Hayward said that no jobs were being lost and the four staff were being relocated to St. George's and Hamilton.

Faxed questions on the issue were sent to the Premier yesterday but were not responded to.

However, last month, answering a question on the subject, she said: "We took a policy decision when we were elected that we would rotate all Government contracts to give those people who would not get Government contracts an opportunity.

"We did that through the Government in all kinds of areas.'' GOVERNMENT GVT BUSINESS BUC