week The Royal Gazette talked to the Hon. John Barritt who was recently sworn into his first Cabinet post as Minister of Technology and Information.

The Global House office is still almost bare two weeks after the Hon. John Barritt was sworn into his first Cabinet post as Minister of Technology and Information.

Striding over to the phone, he picks it up but moments later disappears out of the office again.

"I still haven't mastered the phone system yet,'' he candidly admits. That could be construed as surprising coming from the person who has just taken on the mantle of deregularising the Island's telecommunications over the next nine months. But as the human sieve through which all Government information will be carefully sifted before it reaches the light of day, his candour bodes well for the Press and the public.

The former newspaper and television reporter quotes a famous boxing saying to make his point.

"He said you can run but you can't hide. I say you can run but you can't hide in Bermuda.'' His next remark is music to a reporter's ears: "A minister who refuses to return a phone call from the Press -- that is unforgivable.'' Instead Mr. Barritt vows that "whenever and wherever possible'' he will answer questions and where the facts are not on file he will simply say so.

Anything else just gets you into trouble, he adds.

Mr. Barritt is also forthright about his personal preference for information supplying over the dry technicalities and detailed legislation he will have to wade through to get to grips with his new telecommunications ministry.

Even for a lawyer, he admits it makes poor reading.

In June, former Minister of Management and Technology the Hon. Grant Gibbons put forward a policy statement reforming telecommunications in Bermuda by dismantling the current monopoly by Bermuda Telephone Company and Cable and Wireless and opening up the sector to competition.

It would, he claimed, bring down telephone costs, promote investment, pave the way for more innovative developments in Bermuda and give private citizens and companies a choice of services.

The Ministry was given a 12-month transition period to phase in a framework aimed at creating a level playing field in telecommunications.

Mr. Barritt admits that a change of minister three months into the transition was not ideal. While he has immersed himself in information on the subject, he says it is still too early to pinpoint what innovations Bermuda can expect under his ministerial leadership. But if all goes according to plan, Bermuda should be on the leading edge of technical development by the year 2000.

While his journalistic background as a Royal Gazette reporter for four years, Bermuda Sun editor and stint at ZBM make him an ideal candidate to deal with the Press, it was his legal background, litigation experience and familiarity with cumbersome documents that prompted Premier the Hon. David Saul to put him in the post.

Mr. Barritt is hoping to expand his small staff of three. While Telecommunications has a budget of $350,000, it generates $5 million in fees making it one of the most profitable Government departments.

"It is an area of great potential growth,'' Mr. Barritt says. "I am impressed with the potential we have but also aware of the need to get it right.

"It is important to position Bermuda on a course which will benefit the whole of Bermuda and Bermuda's ability to compete in the world market place.'' But the real challenge for Mr. Barritt will be balancing his partnership at Appleby, Spurling & Kempe law firm, his ministerial duties and his private life with wife Sharon, and two children, Rachael, 19, and Justin, 15.

Mr. Barritt, 45, returned to Bermuda ten years ago following political science and law studies in Canada and England. He was elected for the first time as a Devonshire South MP just two years ago and then became Government Whip.

THE HON. JOHN BARRITT -- "A minister who refuses to return a phone call from the Press -- that is unforgivable.''