Union leader Ed Ball has hit back at claims the Civil Service is blocking the PLP Government and has said some politicians treated ministries like a private business.

He was responding to claims made by former PLP Senator Calvin Smith in a recent opinion piece in .

Mr. Smith said he believed the common complaint ?that the PLP is doing nothing? is partly related to the relatively recent introduction of the party system and its dependence upon a permanent Civil Service that had served only one Government, that of the United Bermuda Party.

He wrote: ?Hence, Civil Servants were in the habit of implementing policies that, in many instances, either would not have been implemented by the PLP, or, would have been implemented quite differently.

?As a result, the newly elected PLP Government found itself very frustrated in its attempts to implement policies designed to remove or modify the all too obvious legacies of slavery and segregation.? However Mr. Ball, general secretary of Bermuda Public Services Union, said Mr. Smith should have quoted examples of his complaints. Mr. Ball said: ?I am not aware of any specific examples where Civil Servants (Directors or Permanent Secretaries) have disregarded Ministerial orders.?

The role of most senior servants is to advise the Minister, said Mr. Ball. ?It could be that what the Minister desired was against the spirit of Financial Orders, the Public Service Regulations or the Code of Conduct.

?What I do know is that some Ministers (not all) felt they could run Government Ministries similar to their private businesses.

?Any policy may be changed but understand the policy before asking for it to be circumvented.?

The Civil Service must be apolitical, said Mr. Ball, and the Secretary to the Cabinet and the Public Service Commission are there to ensure Ministers don?t directly supervise junior staff.

?Only the Directors and/or Permanent Secretaries carry out Ministerial orders.

?No Minister or political appointee should ever forget their indebtedness to their electorate that voted them in which includes Civil Servants and their families and extended family.?

He said accusations by politicians against civil servants were a two-way street. ?I will always encourage Ministers to inform the Secretary to Cabinet of perceived wrong doing by any Civil Servant and will encourage Civil Servants to use the many avenues available to them to lodge complaints against wrong.?