Over the past months Bermuda has been consumed with two major scandals that have cut to the heart of this Government's suitability to lead.

The BHC outrage has exposed a Government devoid of ethical standards, a moral compass or at least the shallowest of survival instincts to hold people responsible after they're caught with their hands in the cookie-jar.

Additionally, the as yet fully understood debacle at the Berkeley project has revealed Government's willingness to expose us to a huge and completely avoidable financial burden in order to cover up their incompetence.

In the past several weeks however, buried somewhere underneath these issues, has been a subtle shift on the Government's part to position themselves as financially accountable - without changing their own behaviour.

This illusion is unfolding by way of the Bermuda Track and Field Association (BTFA) and Hope Homes. While the full details of these stories remain unclear, what is clear is that these actions have exposed a Government that doesn't lead from the top down, but that expects more of us than they are willing to commit to themselves.

Bermuda is currently being subjected to a "do as I say, not as I do" Government, one intent on hoodwinking us into thinking that it embraces the very principles of accountability and transparency that it has intentionally undermined during their tenure.

The most glaring example of this is the eureka moment Minister Dale Butler seems to have experienced, perhaps during his recent trip to Greece.

Only several months ago the Minister proudly proclaimed his desire to fund charitable and sporting organisations, despite poor financial standards.

Now, only two months later, this same Minister is lambasting them for their lack of accountability with taxpayer funds, behaviour he wholeheartedly endorsed. Mr. Butler should count his blessings that George Bush's Republican Party hasn't set up shop in Bermuda.

They'd have christened him as their favourite "flip-flopper" with those statements, let alone his Cabinet appointment-induced Cuban conversion.

Both Hope Homes and the BTFA have been publicly scolded, by Government Ministers of all people, for sub-standard financial practices and a lack of accountability.

The BTFA was first in line for the hypocrisy treatment, receiving a public spanking by a Government that has advocated removing the Auditor, failed to produce a receipt for a $700,000 transaction, and builds houses and a school at twice the market rate.

Next up was Hope Homes, an organisation serving the most vulnerable in our island paradise.

They were told by our elected practitioners of financial hide-and-seek that they will no longer receive Government grants due to a lack of accountability, throwing them immediately into a financial crisis.

None of this should suggest that these - or any other - organisations should receive taxpayer grants unconditionally, but simply that they are doing nothing more or less than what is being endorsed and honed into a fine art in the Cabinet Office.

It takes plenty of chutzpah, and an admirable lack of shame, to deride these organisations for their behaviour while we watch our taxpayer money disappear faster than a Cabinet Minister flying to their next junket.

True leadership starts at the top and trickles down. What we've experienced over the past few years is a Bermuda rot of the financial variety, and not the kind that's easily treated with a little antiseptic on the surface.

This rot has become so pervasive and deeply ingrained, that it has spread like a virus, infecting worthy causes and jeopardising vital public services along the way.

It's little wonder then that some of the organisations which do so much good, might have adopted the same standards of our unaccountable Government. This administration will have zero credibility in its newfound embrace of sound financial practices until it gets its own house in order.

A good place to start would be with the matter of the phantom $700,000 bond payment, the commissioning of a public inquiry into the goings on at the BHC and a full and public accounting of the costs and progress at Berkeley.

These steps would reveal the full extent of the rot, and identify both the host and the cure for the disease.

Perhaps, to take a page out of the Hope Homes scenario, we should start withholding our land, payroll and other taxes until the Government gets their own act together?