March, 14, 2013Dear Sir,Before the Progressive Labour Party came to power in 1998 and started to build up the number of Government employees to unsustainable levels, the majority of posts were filled with dedicated, qualified, knowledgeable and experienced individuals. These were a mix of both Bermudians and non-Bermudians. The system generally worked and it was affordable. During the PLP’s tenure many experienced non-Bermudians and Bermudians with United Bermuda Party persuasions, were replaced by the most able Bermudian they could find and preferably a PLP friend or family member. Unfortunately, that most able Bermudian did not always have the qualifications, knowledge or experience for the position they were appointed to. We all know that you cannot sack an under performing public servant, even if they are grossly incompetent. So, what happened, they either employed a consultant or a contractor to do the work that the most able Bermudian was incapable of.Anybody also notice that where two pre-1998 public employees did a satisfactory job it now seems to take three people to do the same quantity of work. I blame the desktop computers, easy internet access, social networking and private cell phones. To balance the budget the public paid workforce needs to be cut back by at least 40 percent and those that remain actually work for the people who pay them. I know that won’t happen because nobody has the testicular fortitude to make really hard decisions and I don’t want to see another 3,000 people unemployed anyway. But, pay needs to be cut drastically. We cannot afford 8,000 odd full-time public paid workers. Many jobs within Government are not essential to the people and if they were not undertaken for a couple of years, while we dig ourselves out of the hole the PLP mismanagement put us in, who other than the government employee would really notice? We need many public workers to go on three and four day weeks at proportional pay, just like the private sector has now done for four years.TAKE THE TOUGH DECISIONS NOWPembroke