Vexed Bermoothes

We were treated to a funny show on Friday, when the Premier dragged out a Government Computer Guy to explain why the Tourism stats were wrong. 

Why him? Was the Rat Control Guy unavailable?  Did all the Cabinet Office sycophants get out of the room first?

The Tourism stats have been unreliable for many years.  One reason is that the statistics are gathered and interpreted by Tourism itself – making it very tempting to layer all sorts of spin on their compilation and release.  Moreover, the stats seem to mysteriously disappear from Government’s websites, making it nigh impossible for the public to track over time how Tourism is doing.

This should stop immediately.

I reiterate my earlier calls for Bermuda Government statistics to be entirely neutral and free from both departmental and political influence.  Here are some strategies adopted in other countries:

• Statistics must be gathered and analysed by Government’s Statistics Department, which is competent and relatively independent.
• The Stats team should release its results to the public and to Government at the same time (reducing the urge to pick out the most flattering data and craft a message for public consumption).
• The Stats team should independently choose how to present the data (reducing the spin surrounding statistics – by the time the public have had time to digest the numbers behind the hype, the news has moved on).
• The Stats team should choose the release dates for statistics (reversing the trend of choosing good days or fancy lunches for burying bad news).
• An independent watchdog should annually comment on the quality of the statistics and make binding recommendations for improvement.

Numbers that have been complied by amateurs, or massaged by interest parties, are not useful management tools.  Nor are they a fair scale for accountability.

The Royal Gazette points out the double tragedy of these failed statistics:  the 2009 budget for Tourism has been invested based on 2008 statistics that are now admitted to be incorrect.  Epic fail.

Sooner or later, you have got to question Dr. Brown’s track record as Minister of Tourism.