August 5, 2013Dear Sir,The interim report of the SAGE Commission, whilst welcomed, is worrying on a number of levels. Most striking was the admission that the Government doesn’t actually know how many people are on its payroll (I phrase that deliberately rather than use the words “work for” the Government). It appears that there is no centralised human resources or payroll. Unbelievable. We have a cumbersome machine and we don’t actually know the real size of it! How can we take something apart and put it back together again when we don’t have a clue how many pieces it has — even though we may have an idea of how many it should have. In the corporate world, when there is a change of management/control, in many cases, the new management will look at all the position descriptions for each job, determine the skill set necessary to best fill each position and then all employees have to reapply for their jobs — or any other job in the organisation. That way, management can determine which positions are necessary and who is the best candidate for each position. Unnecessary positions and poorly performing employees are eliminated. I suppose that even in our wildest dreams it is too much to hope that something equally efficient could be done with our Civil Service?No-one wants an increase in the numbers of employed and the resultant hardship on our already hard-pressed families (and the agencies who in many instances support them), but surely we want to foster a culture of excellence in our civil service and ensure that those employed by the Government are ambassadors for the work force as a whole — this is the same workforce that we sell to exempt companies seeking to come to Bermuda as highly educated and functioning to the best possible international standards. Why should our Civil Service be anything other than that? I fear that because the SAGE commission is reliant on these same Government employees to produce the information required to enable them to make smart decisions, there will be a dragging of feet and a reluctance to pull back the veil. It would be like turkeys voting for Christmas. I am sure that there are a number of very dedicated, talented people who work for the Government, but it is apparent that these gems are in the minority. As we try to make our way of the mess that we are in, please let us support the people who are trying to help us become successful again.ELSPETH A BREWINWarwick