Opposition leader Grant Gibbons accused Government in the House of Assembly on Friday night of having ?another agenda? which necessitated the Stonington hotel lease being pushed through in an ?unseemly manner? just one month before last year?s General Election.

And, despite Tourism Minister Renee Webb?s denials, Dr. Gibbons said there was no need to sweeten the lease so substantially once it was awarded, as owner John Jefferis was prepared to invest $12.9 million into the property as part of his original bid.

Responding to an interpolation by a MP from his party Dr. Gibbons said, ?yes, as my colleauge just said, it does sound like it?s Coco Loco?, and later he said ?this isn?t Coco, it?s ? ? using the Spanish for crazy ? to howls of laughter.

Auditor General Larry Dennis released a Special Report on the former Stonington Hotel lease granted by Government in which he said the lease was so radically renegotiated that it should have been re-tendered.

The new terms, set after Government awarded the lease to Mr. Jefferis, included the lease being more than doubled from 21 years to 50 years, four extra acres of prime waterfront and woodland reserve property, slashed rent, and allowed for condominiums to be bought and sold.

Tourism Minister Renee Webb released a five-page statement last week saying that the terms had to be renegotiated in light of the substantial investment that Mr. Jefferis was pouring into the property.

However, speaking during the motion to adjourn in the House on Friday, Dr. Gibbons said that excuse ?does not wash? as Mr. Jefferis? original tender included his $12.9 million upgrade to the hotel.

That rendered all the concessions ?unnecessary?, he said. ?It makes a mockery of the entire bidding process.?

Ms Webb also quoted the Auditor General in his report as saying: ?The tendering process appears to have been administered in accordance with Government policy,? citing that as evidence that the integrity of the process was not in question.

But, Dr. Gibbons said, she left out the large ?however? in the next sentence of the report: ?However, the lease that was eventually executed was so materially different from the Heads of Terms that were the basis for proposals from short-listed bidders, the tendering process was effectively compromised.?

Ms Webb also said the hotel had not seen any capital investment in the past 15 years. However Dr. Gibbons, who sat on the Stonington Board in the 80?s and 90?s, said that was untrue.

There was a steady stream of capital investment into the hotel, although it did not match the million-dollar magnitude of Mr. Jefferis? investment.

And while Mr. Jefferis had offered the highest level of investment into the hotel, Dr. Gibbons said that was no excuse either. His bid was accepted on the basis of the original amount he was prepared to put in, Dr. Gibbons said, and as that amount had not changed, there was no need for renegotiations. ?Coco Reef is not a hero here.?

Though Ms Webb said the fact that the hotel was losing money was another reason for renegotiating the lease, Dr. Gibbons said that, also, was not good enough.

Pointing out that the hotel had been losing money for years, he said all the bidders were aware of that when they made their original bids, and to make that out to be a reason for renegotiating the lease ?simply doesn?t wash?.

Referring to an article in on Friday, Dr. Gibbons said he had a list of 14 employees with over 200 years of collective service to Stonington ? all of whom were made to resign or were fired within the last nine months.

Naming several, he said: ?This is a horrendous situation! Is this the kind of hotel management the Minister of Tourism has brought in to this country??

The lease was signed by two Government senators, College Board chairman Raymond Tannock and Attorney General Larry Mussenden, but it was never approved by the rest of the Board, he said.

?There is a real question in my mind as to whether this lease is valid. There was a huge give-away here. I like to think of it as a modern-day example of privateering.?

Dr. Gibbons accused Cabinet, former Education Minister Paula Cox, and Mr. Tannock of being ?negligent or there was another agenda here which was pushed through by the Minister of Tourism?.

?This whole lease was rushed through in an unseemly sort of way,? he said, adding it was signed just about one month before the last General Election. ?That raises some questions in my mind.?