Government defended its record on contracting work to private companies, with Development Minister Terry Lister saying the Progressive Labour Party was "spreading it around''.

Mr. Lister was responding to comments by Opposition MPs David Dodwell and Grant Gibbons, who questioned "Government cronyism'' in the extension of the travel budget to Travel Planners during Friday night's Motion to Adjourn the House of Assembly.

Mr. Dodwell charged: "we have lost sight of the policy of tendering'' claiming that other companies have not had an opportunity to bid for Government contracts.

"I don't know who they are,'' Mr. Dodwell said of Travel Planners.

"We have to ask is the lay person being served well. We are entitled to know what is the status of tendering...'' Dr. Gibbons said the PLP was guilty of `doublespeak' and said `two wrongs don't make a right', adding also the Morgan's Point development job was not properly tendered.

"The issue is the process'', he explained. "The single largest real estate development in the Island was not put out to tender.'' Mr. Lister responded that when he took over his ministry he found that only one local company -- which he did not name -- did Government's video production.

When he asked civil servants to produce the exclusive contract binding Government to that company, they found a contract signed in 1983 but good for six months work.

Mr. Lister, citing the contract, replied that was a clear example of successive United Bermuda Party Governments "taking care of its friends''.

Mr. Lister also suggested that UBP Governments rented properties from party supporters and members, allowing those people to get rich.

"I find it insulting that I could walk in there and find that only one company had the contract for 15 years,'' he said. "No contract, no bids. But I got them all on a bidding process. And guess what, it doesn't matter what colour they are.

"This (UBP criticism) is the pot calling the kettle black,'' he added. "We have had governments taking care of its friends. We're in the process of spreading it around.'' Mr. Lister defended Government's renting of space in the Bermuda Industrial Union headquarters for a documents storage centre, claiming that as it is rented at a relatively low rate of $7.44 a square foot, Government was cheating its own supporters.

"That's how we take care of our friends,'' he added. "We haven't gone around buying up buildings and filling them up with Government departments. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. And the people of Bermuda are watching.''