More than a year after bringing in a policy for cutting work permit red tape for firms who are "good corporate citizens" Government is refusing to say how many have been granted special status.

The Bermuda Employers' Council (BEC), which has been critical about work permit delays, claims the policy has not been publicised, with BEC executive director Andrea Mowbray saying: "They haven't given us any guidelines."

Assistant Chief Immigration Officer Rozy Azhar said the policy is on the Government website and had been plugged at workshops run last year with companies and was raised any time companies asked for advice on speeding permit applications.

But she said Government would not say how many "good corporate citizen" companies there were.

She said: "What we will say is that some applications have just come in and are being considered and they have certainly made the case for being good corporate citizens."

Asked why Government would not reveal the number of successful companies she said: "Because I am not. There are ten applications. That's my answer."

The special status policy was started in April last year. Ms Azhar said: "We have not done anything recently to push it."

She said some companies didn't realise they had to apply and that one company mistakenly thought Government had deemed them bad corporate citizens because they had not got special status.

She said: "I think there's this misconception by many employers that we just run through the files here and decide and stamp them yes or no. But they have to make an application."

She said companies designated as good corporate citizens could bypass the immigration board with some of their applications.

Criteria for getting special status include:

actively recruiting and training Bermudians

advertising and applying for work permits correctly

disclosing information about the selection process

having good industrial relations.

These quicker permits will only be given for jobs where there is a major shortage or for jobs in key positions in large companies.

BEC Vice President Jonathan Brewin took a delegation of industry heads to thrash out work permit hassles with Government recently but he too said he wasn't very aware of the criteria for applying.

But he said: "I would encourage more companies to apply. Our company will be applying. If you don't have to go to the board it will speed up the whole process."

Asked if she would like to see more firms apply for good corporate citizen status Ms Azhar said: "That's like asking if I want to see more work permit applications. The answer is neither here nor there."

She said Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister would take any applications seriously but companies would need a while to put all the necessary information together.