Ever feel like you are going around in circles? Reporters at The Royal Gazette sometimes do when trying to find out information on behalf of the public.

And so it was yesterday when we asked a simple question about the tendering process for government contracts — and got nowhere fast.

The day had promised some sunshine midmorning when the Premier's press secretary issued a press release at 11.20 a.m. headed "Government Takes Progressive Step on Transparency".

The document heralded a recent Cabinet decision to start publishing details of all contracts once awarded — good news on day three of Sunshine Week.

When we asked if the entire tendering process for taxpayer-funded contracts would also be made transparent, Mr. Jones told us in an e-mail: "The tender process will be conducted in keeping with Financial Instructions as per normal."

He didn't elaborate so the inevitable next step was to get hold of the instructions to figure out whether that was a yes or a no. A quick call to the Ministry of Finance followed and we were helpfully put through to the Accountant General's office.

As a little test to see how easy it would be for any member of the public to find out such information, we didn't initially tell the assistant accountant general we spoke to where we were calling from. He said he could not figure out why we would think we were entitled to get a copy of the instructions. "Because taxpayers fund government?" we suggested, in response.

"That's how we operate and that's like giving you an operational manual," the civil servant told us. "I don't regard the Financial Instructions as a public document. I know that what we do should be transparent but why would I hand my bible to you?"

At that point, we admitted to calling for journalistic reasons, explaining that we'd been guided to the Financial Instructions by Mr. Jones. The assistant accountant general said he could not imagine why the Premier's spokesman would have made such a suggestion.

"I want to be completely transparent but..." he said, before his voice trailed away.

Nothing could persuade him to hand over the rules on how Government spends your cash and Mr. Jones did not return calls yesterday afternoon. Hence we're none the wiser — and, sadly, neither are you.

• Share your experiences of trying to get information from publicly funded bodies by visiting www.theroyalgazette.com and clicking on the Be A Hero icon on the right hand side.

• E-mail the answers you're seeking from the people who work for you to arighttoknow@royalgazette.bm.