Vexed Bermoothes

I am sadly amused by the public opinion polls in the Royal Gazette last week: the Premier’s rating is in the basement, while the Minister of Finance receives a solid positive rating from the public.

Sure, Paula Cox is dignified and well-liked … but let’s not confuse that with job performance.  I suspect that her popularity in the polls is partially a compensation for his unpopularity.

During Minister Cox’s tenure of Finance Minister, it is my opinion that the Bermuda Government lost control of both its hiring and expenditures. The Government has received two qualified audit opinions. Public debt has gone through the roof (and still climbing).  During the period of boom, no funds were saved away to help us through the rocky straits now facing our economy.

The civil service is supposed to work for the public. But the way things are going, the public will be labouring to support the profligacy of our Government. Despite the blizzard of money flying around, I doubt that most Bermudians would agree that they have received a commensurate improvement in the services provided, nor were many important capital projects accomplished during that period of mass expenditure.

I argue that these are failures for which the Minister of Finance must bear responsibility.

These failures are very relevant as Minister Cox appears to be the front runner to become PLP party leader (and therefore Premier) if Dr. Brown steps down as he has promised this fall.

The Bermuda Government budget for 2010-2011 will be introduced, I am told, on February 19.   The excess and spin has to stop.  This must be a conservative budget that shows that the Minister can make hard choices to reintroduce financial reality to the Bermuda Government.

The 2010-2011 budget must be a more detailed document than the skimpy overviews provided to the public in recent years, where it seems that information provided has shrunk in opposite proportion to the funds allocated.

Paula Cox may be the right “next leader” for the PLP. But to be the right “next leader” for Bermuda, she must prove that she can reintroduce financial probity to the public purse.  And fast.