In the January 13, 2016 edition of The Royal Gazette, on page 10, there is the report of a campaign by a former cabinet secretary, Donald Scott, the Bermuda Public Services Union and the Progressive Labour Party to roll back amendments to the Public Service Regulations 2001, which reform the work of the Public Service Commission.

The BPSU would have you believe that as a result of the amendments, “the public services of Bermuda would report directly and indirectly to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK” because the Governor would appoint the Public Service Commission with the Secretary of the Cabinet — the cabinet secretary and the permanent secretaries — being accountable to them.

Scott would have you believe that the changes will result in the Public Service Commission becoming a “politicised semi-executive body”. These contradictory claims are at best disingenuous and, at worst, deliberately misleading. What is clear is that Scott, the BPSU and the PLP do not want change.

The changes are quite simple. The amendments would make the cabinet secretary and the permanent secretaries accountable to the Public Service Commission for their performance. Most people, I am sure, assume that these individuals are accountable to the Premier and his ministers. They are not.

As the October 2013 Final Report of the Sage Commission observes, “while officially accountable to the Governor, the Secretary to the Cabinet does not report directly to anyone. He or she is appointed by the Governor following a selection process laid down in Section 90 of the Constitution that includes the Premier and the Public Service Commission. (Sage Report: page 29)”.

So the permanent secretaries and the rest of the civil and public service are accountable to the cabinet secretary, as Head of the Civil Service. Nominally, since the cabinet secretary is appointed by the Governor, he is accountable to the Governor.

However, as the Sage Report observes “ ... in practice, none of these offices — that is, the Governor and Public Service Commission — assesses the Secretary to the Cabinet’s performance or holds him or her to account for the performance of government employees. The Secretary to the Cabinet is exempt from performance appraisals and is not required to report his or her performance to the public.” (Sage Report: page 29).

Are the amendments required? Absolutely. One need look no farther than the work being done by the Commission of Inquiry into the Auditor-General’s Report for the years 2010 to 2012 to see that the previous institutional arrangements were unable to prevent widespread political interference and inadequate control over spending of the public’s money.

These same problems, and more, were noted in the Sage Report — “There are a number of overarching themes and findings that were reflected in the Interim Report. They have been validated in subsequent analysis, and now drive our final recommendations:

• There is a lack of effective, accountable (emphasis added) leadership in Bermuda’s civil and public service. If this issue is resolved, other weaknesses are likely to be addressed

• The civil and public service suffers from a flawed organisational structure in which the principles of best practice management are not enforced and in which a cumbersome, lethargic culture is rife

• The manner in which the civil and public service is governed and in which reporting lines are identified demands a paradigm shift to meet Bermuda’s needs in the 21st century

• Political interference has been allowed to thwart the effective management of the Civil Service

• Because there is no integrated process for planning and measurement, the Bermuda Government does not have a national strategic plan. Clearly articulated measurable goals and objectives are absent, while stated goals and objectives rarely correlate with cohesive business plans

• There is no clear, documented, fully functioning and transparent process to measure efficiencies or to achieve accountability.” (Sage Report: pages 6 and 7).

Do the amendments, as claimed by the BPSU, suddenly result in the public service reporting directly and indirectly to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office? Clearly not. Now the public service will be accountable, through the cabinet secretary and his permanent secretaries, to the Public Service Commission, which is appointed by the Governor. Before, they were accountable to the cabinet secretary, who is appointed by the Governor. The “chain of command”, if one could call it that, to the Governor and there on up has not changed.

Do the amendments, as claimed by Scott suddenly result in the Public Service Commission being “politicised”? Clearly not. Before, they were appointed by the Governor, and Scott thought they were “impartial”. Now they are appointed by the Governor, using the exact same process, and so there is every reason to believe that they will continue to be impartial, as opposed to being “politicised”.

Are the amendments consistent with our existing constitutional arrangements? The Sage Commission, which included among its members, Kenneth Dill, a former cabinet secretary, Peter Hardy, a former financial secretary, and Kim White, a senior member of the legal fraternity, thought so.

They concluded that significant changes to the Public Service Commission, which in certain ways went farther than the amendments, were required, noting that “while the current constitutional provisions for the PSC may serve for the recommended expanded role of the PSC, we recommend the necessary changes be made to the Bermuda Constitution to effect this critical organisational change.” (Sage Report page 9).

The Government and the Governor have obviously decided not to adopt all of the Sage Report recommendations, but it would appear that the existing constitutional arrangements can accommodate the less extensive changes that the amendments achieve.

It is simply not acceptable to continue the old arrangement where the cabinet secretary, who holds both the offices of Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service — and to whom the civil and public service are accountable — is, himself, accountable to no one. A reformed Public Service Commission, with the cabinet secretary being responsible to them in respect of the efficiency and effectiveness with which he and the civil and public service carry out the mandate set out by the government of the day is sensible, reasonable and critical to Bermuda’s long-term wellbeing.

•Tom Conyers, a retired accountant, is the former chairman of the Measurement and Metrics Committee of the Sage Commission