conflicts of interest in the awarding of contracts.

And they denied that anything underhand had happened when firms they were connected to won deals to supply Government.

Ex-Education Minister Tim Smith -- who was singled out by Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb because his family firm won business from Government while he was in office -- said the allegations were "baseless, reckless and malicious''.

And he demanded an apology from Ms Webb -- to himself, Civil Servants involved in tendering and staff at his family firm.

Former Minister without Portfolio Kim Young said Ms Webb had "come back like a viper'' over the demands and said she had no knowledge that a company chaired by her husband had computer contracts with Government.

The row broke out after Ms Webb dismissed Opposition demands that the ruling PLP disclose details of bids to influence Ministers and MPs over jobs and contracts as "hypocrisy''.

She said Mr. Smith's family firm AF Smith had a contract for "computers and paper supplies'' with Government.

And she insisted conflict of interest was "a normal way of doing business under previous governments''.

Mr. Smith, however, said that his firm had never dealt in computers -- and contracts for paper had never been dealt with by him.

He added: "I can state categorically and without any fear of contradiction that I have never, never got involved in paper supplies proposals for the government.'' Mr. Smith said the Accountant General invited companies to bid and the firm's sales people then dealt with the relevant Civil Servants.

He added: "Our company submitted bids and I can confirm that we were unsuccessful on more occasions than successful.

"The invitations to tender were never addressed to me and the submissions were never reviewed or signed by me.'' And Mr. Smith said company files had named Civil Servants his firm had dealt with.

He added: "I challenge the Minister to ask each of these persons if I influenced, or even attempted to influence, their proper consideration of the bid submissions.'' And he said Ms Webb's claims were an insult to the integrity of the Civil Service and employees at AF Smith.

Mr. Smith added: "Her distrust of the Civil Service is confirmed by her statement that she will not award contracts to companies "unless she knows who the owners are''.

And he asked: "Is she saying the Civil Service is corrupt and that's why she wants to review the contracts herself?'' Ex-Finance Minister Grant Gibbons last week also dismissed Ms Webb's claims over conflict in contracts.

And he said there were strict rules governing the awarding of deals to supply Government -- and that the real issue was what the PLP had done to clamp down on party members who had attempted to influence politicians.

Mr. Smith said: "When I was a Government Minister I complied with all the rules concerning the declaration of one's business interests.

"I would even go above and beyond the Governmental requirements and always insisted that my account managers not discuss Government proposals with me.'' Ms Webb accepted that in a place Bermuda's size, contracts could be awarded to companies in which politicians had an interest -- but that that should be known.

And she said she had made a practice of knowing who controlled companies before she awarded contracts to avoid potential embarrassment.

But Ms Young insisted: "I didn't know anything about this contract until I read it in the paper.'' And she said that company chiefs were irrelevant when awarding contracts -- and that business should go to the bid ruled best.

Ms Young added: "That shows if people don't know who the companies are, then the person getting the contract is the one who makes the best bid. There isn't any need for anyone to know who is behind the companies.'' And Ms Young said an insistence on knowing firms' principals left Ministers open to suspicion of settling old scores.

She added: "That to me means if a Minister happens to dislike a person or a company, their bias could influence the granting of a contract.

"What we could end up with is only the people in favour with the Minister getting contracts -- not the person who made the best bid.

"And that means you could get second-rate work or more expensive services if the Minister is going to take the trouble to find out who is behind every company. The Minister's statements lean towards bias and cronyism.'' Hands-off approach: Tim Smith Ownership questions: Renee Webb