Vexed Bermoothes

After Marine & Ports’ embarrassing ferry incident with the drunken sailor, the Public Transportation Board admits that it has problems staffing the bus network because of the high incidence of drug use:
[Public Transport Director] Mr. Simmons said a “significant portion” of applicants for driver jobs were caught out by drug screening … He [...]

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If Government now employs 5,600 people that means that it employs nearly 10% of all Bermuda residents (local and expat) over the age of 21 based on the 2000 census.
Strike out the non-working adults and retirees and that statistic gets even more frightening. Here’s why it’s so bad:

Presumably Government enforces hiring preferences for Bermudians, meaning [...]

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Bermuda’s union members should become big supporters of public access to information laws, as the back room dealings between the BIU and Government over the Berkeley Institute project may end up costing the union rank and file $11 million dollars.

Union members should have a say when so much of their money is “invested” to such [...]

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The PLP has been in Government for 10 years. In that time, Bermuda’s government expenditures have more than doubled, culminating in this year’s $1.1 billion belt-buster budget.
And we have a mismatch: we are spending faster than we are earning. Bermuda’s national debt has gone from $198 million in 2006 (just two years ago) [...]

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Back in November, Bermuda was fixated on our little race war, I mean election, so it’s understandable that the release of Barack Obama’s Technology platform did not get much attention.
Now that Obama is officially a Contender, it’s worth a read. You see, Obama is a big proponent of Open Government - as in transparent [...]

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The Government broke tradition by not releasing the Economic Review for Bermuda along with the Budget Statement last week. It will be released instead a week later, just as debate on the budget begins.
Minister Cox tries to spin a happy face saying “the delay centres around design flaws with the document, and we [...]

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The Government budget allocated $200,000 each to Public Access to Information and to Sustainable Development. Dr. Brown has refused to commit to a timetable, but …
Government’s Central Policy Unit has said drafting instructions for a PATI bill could be placed before Cabinet within weeks. If the instructions win Ministers’ backing, a bill will be [...]

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The Bermuda Government 2008-9 Budget has been released. At 36 pages (down from 45 last year and 99 the year before that), it continues the trend of providing less information about Government finances.
On the positive site, unlike last year, this budget actually includes some breakdowns of the numbers … although the detail is often [...]

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The Department of Tourism falls over itself to show annual improvements in tourist arrivals. But we all know that traditional Bermuda tourism is dead: our market is now dominated by business travellers and “package” cruise passengers.
The following chart (compiled from Caribbean Travel Organisation statistics) shows just how reliant Bermuda is on [...]

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Surprising no-one, wandering politico Jamahl Simmons has been named as Dr. Brown’s taxpayer-funded Chief of Staff. Except he will not be chief of any staff and will have the exceptionally light duty of “liasing with Ministers.”
All that for 100 grand a year.

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