Your tax dollars at work: despite a $11 million dollar investment in international cricket, the Bermuda team has failed to retain their ODI status at the ICC World Cup Qualifiers. They don’t seem to have made many friends either based on this commentary from Cricinfo. It seems to be a good metaphor for Bermuda’s governance [...]
Entries from April 11th, 2009
Government Ponzi
April 10th, 2009 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Media, Reform, Tourism
As time goes by, more and more distrust and frustration builds up within the unions and civil service against the PLP leadership. It’s not just the disillusion over promises made … and broken. It’s also the the constant allegations of meddling, shortcuts, and bullying. The media reports are normally angrily denied – but this is [...]
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Wasting the Brand
April 9th, 2009 · Comments Off · Tourism
The Premier’s favorite newspaper today interviews the US advertising guru who’s been commenting on the allegations of mismanagement of Bermuda’s tourism advertising budget. Regarding the unusually high commissions that Bermuda’s been paying, he makes this comment: “Smart clients don’t pay commissions any more as they’re historically subject to corruption. Most clients pay flat fees based [...]
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FutureCare
April 8th, 2009 · Comments Off · Health
This editorial ran into today’s Royal Gazette, regarding Government’s (in my view) dishonest handling of the FutureCare initiative and the immense problems their shortcuts will cause for Bermuda in future years. To summarise: The initiative has the best intentions but is badly executed. Even at launch, the initiative is running at a huge deficit. Frightened [...]
Tags:FutureCare
Disbelief
April 7th, 2009 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Tourism
There is much debate in Bermuda regarding the effectiveness of the Bermuda Ministry of Tourism. Some allege that the Ministry caters more to the personal desires and interests of politicians than towards attracting actual visitors to Bermuda. Others (including the Auditor General) assert that the Ministry has been ineffective in controlling its budgets, allowing inappropriate [...]
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Upwards Pressure
April 7th, 2009 · Comments Off · Business, Reform
The OECD just announced that the four countries named on its “tax haven blacklist” last week – Costa Rica, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Uruguay – have all cried UNCLE and agreed to the OECD information sharing principles. This means that all attention will now focus on the “greylist”, which includes Bermuda. Obviously, it behooves Bermuda [...]
Tags:G20·money laundering·OECD·tax haven
Where are the Police?
April 5th, 2009 · Comments Off · Transport
There was another death on the roads last night. This time it was the driver of a car, killed in a fiery head-on collision, rather than a bike rider. WTF? It is the beginning of April and we already have had 5 deaths on the roads. It looks like we will hit last year’s gory [...]
Tags:police
Transparency
April 3rd, 2009 · Comments Off · Business, Islands, Transparency
In discussing how the Cayman Islands have unilaterally extended tax information exchange with 20 countries, the former head of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), Tim Ridley, notes that transparency and good governance are just as important as TIEAs: “The Freedom of Information Law is a good marketing tool for Cayman as it shows we [...]
Tags:Cayman Islands·G20·OECD
OECD Starts to Name & Shame
April 2nd, 2009 · Comments Off · Business
Following the G20 meeting in London, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development started naming and shaming non-compliant tax havens this afternoon. The G20 countries have agreed to work towards levying sanctions on non-compliant countries. Read the OECD announcement Look at the OECD list 40 countries are shown as compliant, including the offshores of the [...]
Tags:G20·money laundering·OECD·tax haven
Bermuda First
April 2nd, 2009 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Business
When the press release first came out yesterday, you can’t blame most people for thinking it was an April 1st prank. We should all thank long-time insurance leader Don Kramer for pulling together a bipartisan group called Bermuda First, co-chaired with the Premier and Opposition Leader, to brainstorm ideas for Bermuda’s future. The effort will [...]