A civil servant’s submission to the SAGE Commission which won him more than $12,000 has landed him in hot water with some of his colleagues and sparked controversy about the process surrounding the competition.Magnus Henagulph’s submission was praised by SAGE Commission chairman Brian Duperreault as “a comprehensive, itemised outline, that included savings suggestions and cross-Ministry cost reductions”.However, shortly after the cheques were handed out at a press conference called to announce the five winners, SAGE had removed all of their submissions from the website. An edited version is now back on the SAGE Commission website.SAGE explained in a blog posting on The Royal Gazette website that concern from one of the winners, and senior civil servants, that some of the submissions contained “factual errors and possible breaches of confidential information” had led them to take the submissions down.The Public Affairs Officer is understood to have asked SAGE to remove his submission so he could do some editing, and a decision was then made to take them all down.The SAGE Commission said yesterday that they had relied on those making submissions to check their own papers for errors, or possible breaches of confidentiality.“The members of the SAGE Commission and Committee Chairs considered the submissions in the Awards Programme for the best ideas for creating a more modern, accountable and cost efficient government for Bermuda,” the Commission said in a statement.“With several hundred submissions, they relied on the submitters to fact-check their submissions. They judged each submission for ideas relating to cost reduction and improvements in efficiencies.“The Commission wanted both members of the public and private sector participate and in fact during meetings with Permanent Secretaries, the Commissioners were urged to include Government employees in the Awards Programme.“Each award winner signed a release form that gave the Commission permission to publish his or her submission.”Mr Henagulph’s submission was voted best overall from the 24 shortlisted. Four other submissions were declared winners.The civil servant pulled no punches in his 20-page submission, saying staff should be cut in his own department and claiming that sick days were being abused, Ministers and senior civil servants were using taxpayers’ money for non-business-related expenses, that senior civil servants attended international conferences with little benefit to Bermuda; and questioning why Government spent thousands of dollars celebrating irrelevant days, such as Intellectual Property Day, that few people cared about.He also recommended the size of cabinet to be cut to ten — losing the Minister Without Portfolio title and that of Minister for Tourism, his internal client, and further suggested that the Sustainable Development Department should be closed altogether as: “Salaries and rent cost more than half a million dollars a year and [there is] nothing to show for it.”Those and other claims drew the ire of some of his colleagues.Kevin Grant, president of the Bermuda Public Services Union said the competition amounted to a “business essay assignment”.“Regardless of the fact that he is privy to a lot of information that others are not -It was really like a business essay assignment centred around spending and efficiency where the contestants were given the latitude to say anything they wanted to,” Mr Grant said in an e-mail.“The essays certainly should not turn into recommendations. The overall winner has revealed to everyone how he personally feels about the situation. However he is the one who will have to be prepared for the consequences of his comments. He is still a civil servant (to my knowledge). Will the relationship with his colleagues be the same? Would he be willing to be the casualty of combined departments or privatisation?”Insiders say that Mr Henagulph would answer affirmatively to that last question. He sincerely sees his own department — which provides communication services to Ministries and Government departments, including media relations — as overstaffed given the amount of work they are asked to do.Other cuts made in Mr Henagulph’s edited submission include a passage where he said that one Government lease was “questionable”, because the building was owned by a former PLP MP.Also gone is the statement implying that Ministers and senior civil servants charge business lunches locally on Government issued credit cards.The policy of the Accountant General is not to pay out on local charges on credit cards, although Ministers and civil servants can seek refunds on expenses paid for locally.By press time last night all five submissions — including Mr Henagulph’s final cut — had been placed back on the website.“We regret that this sequence of events has created some confusion and taken away from the attention that should be given to all five winning submissions,” the Commission noted.“They represent a broad cross-section of our community and we appreciate their participation, as well as that of hundreds of others, in helping to create a more efficient Government for Bermuda.”