Vexed Bermoothes

You have to question if Government are really serious about Public Access to Information (PATI).

Last week, the Premier announced that Cabinet would post the details on some of the major contracts it grants.

Which led to the obvious question: “how will those contracts be tendered?”

Which led to the Premier’s press secretary Glenn Jones announcing: “The tender process will be conducted in keeping with Financial Instructions as per normal.”

Which led to the media asking for a copy of the Financial Instructions. The request was apparently blocked by a civil servant in the Accountant General’s office, who said:

“I know that what we do should be transparent but why would I hand my bible to you?”

Yes, apparently the Financial Instructions (FI) are a secret document, not available to the public.  That’s not only appalling, it’s juvenile, it’s ridiculous, and it shows the problems with our secretive Government.

The FI lay out “the minimum standards for financial controls to help ensure that financial transactions are properly recorded and controlled on a consistent basis.”

Every major government that I can think of publishes its accounting, auditing, and contracting standards.  Why is Bermuda hiding behind a bureaucratic wall? You can’t have accountability if the rules themselves are held secret! You can’t pump up your commitment to transparency when even mundane accounting rulebooks are “top secret”!

The Bermuda Financial Instructions should be published immediately – particularly given the frequency of “sloppy accounting” in the public sector, and that fact that Bermudians are being asked to support a massive growth in Government debt in 2009-2010.