Vexed Bermoothes

Recently the PLP has been fixated with re-engineering our society, and has been spending massive sums of our money on the idea-of-the-moment. 

The truth is that our Government needs the reform more than our society.  It is increasingly flabby and non-responsive, secretive, and discriminatory.

The UBP’s plain-spoken John Barritt addresses this well (and with all his lawyerly commas in the right places too): 

I think the entire matter of the BHC scandal from start to finish has shown up the deficiencies of our system of government and underscored the need for reform – meaningful and serious reform that is long overdue here in Bermuda.

The expenditure of public money and the operation of any Government department or of any Government funded quango should be subject at all times to review and investigation by a more active Public Accounts Committee of the House of Assembly, or a working sub-committee thereof, which meets consistently and regularly, if not weekly, with all the necessary powers to summons Ministers and civil servants to account, and whose meetings should be open to the press and public.

I’ll take it even further:  Government must be compelled to publish a proper annual budget with detailed projections for the coming year.  Last year’s vague budget summary was a farce.  Designed to prevent comparision with previous budgets, it forecasted the drifting priorities and fiscal slackness of the public sector.

A proper legislative agenda is also needed, including proper public consultation as well as bi-partisan drafting before bills move before the House, instead of the stupid and petty manipulation of parliamentary procedure that currently occurs. 

Government is not about personal charisma, music festivals, or fancy golf. It is about governance, transparency, representation, accountability.  Let’s grow up some Bermuda.